The Wasteland Journals
by LordFrostwind
Summary: An alternate telling of the Lone Wanderer's Journey from Raven Rock onward. As it should have been, according to this resident Enclave sympathizer. (Currently undergoing rewrite, new chapters will be posted shortly)
1. The Rise of Eden Prime

**The Wasteland Journals**

**Part 1**

_The Rise of Eden Prime_

**Diary Entry #1**

As anyone who has read my previous journals could have guessed, my life has been anything but normal. Sure, normal is a hard thing for anyone to imagine that doesn't live in an irradiated bombed out wonderland of crazy that is DC circa 2277. But still, there are some things I've had to deal with that even the half insane Raiders say "DAMN!" Some wonderful examples being, one, meeting some eccentric author that put me through hell and back to write a damned survival guide, all of which resulted in me being able to regenerate limbs when exposed to an ungodly amount of radiation, not cool. Two, saving my Dad from some quack computer nerd and his unwilling friends stuck in what may be the most jacked up version of the Sims I have ever seen, only to have the idiot sacrifice himself in some bone headed move a few hours later. And I don't even want to talk about the crazy shit I found in the Dunwich Building, suffice it to say, some places are better left alone, or even better, left a pile of rubble courtesy one satellite missile strike.

But you all know that already, and the sad part was, compared to what came next, all of that was a freaking stroll through Tranquility Lane! When did my life go from strange to one giant mess of chaos? Well, it all started during my trip to Vault 87 to find the all important GECK… Which I discovered said Vault was where baby supermutants are made, and that it's all because of the same people who wanted to see what happened when they gave a manager a god complex back in my familiar hole in the ground (note to self, if I ever find any surviving Vault-Tec execs, feed them to the nearest Feral).

Once again, I'm getting ahead of myself. So I met an intelligent Super Mutant, which for me was pretty damn impressive, I mean most his relatives are fortunate if they can put together a four letter word, and of course he agrees to help me get the GECK. He goes and has fun in the radiation for me, brings back the case, we share a few beers, and I'm on my merry way. All the sudden, I get knocked unconscious by a door exploding, the only thing I see is those all too familiar boys with the batman wannabe power armor. The last thing I hear is the voice of foghorn leghorn in my head as I lose consciousness. That everyone is where the story of every-body's favorite Vault Dweller (yours truly) begins.


	2. Chapter 1 Raven Rocked

**Chapter 1_ Raven Rocked:_**

"So, you're awake" The voice called to the Wander.

With a tremendous yawn, she looked to see that she was not in Vault 87 anymore. And she gave a quick prayer of thanks for that fact because she was now standing in nothing more than her underwear in the middle of heaven only knows where. "Uhm hi" she responded weakly, "and where exactly did I wake up?"

"I'll be asking the questions around here young lady." The stalwart Colonel replied, "Now I have some questions I would like to ask you…"

"Yeah, that's good and all, but could you please hurry this up. I've had to pee REALLY bad since I got into Vault 87 and lords knows I wasn't about to touch one of those toilets."

One very awkward silence later and Autumn was able to regain his composure. "Ahem, as I was saying miss. Give me the code to activate the Purifier right now, or this is going to get real ugly."

The red haired girl starred at him for a moment, "Really, that's all you wanted to ask me about?" Colonel Autumn backed away slightly as he saw the building rage inside her "You mean you dragged me to some random prison after knocking me unconscious and stripping me of my clothes for a damned three number combination! No wonder you morons are having such trouble in the wasteland."

"Look Miss, I don't have time to sit here and play games, now give me the combination."

"Oh okay," she said returning to her usual state "its 2-1-6, my mom's favorite scripture, _sniff_, I only wish I could have known her."

Colonel Autumn managed to ignore the Lone Wander's impressive display of waterworks as he radioed his subordinates at the purifier. Many of which were very happy that it had given them access to the computer; rather than go Chernobyl on them, like the last group that had been in there. "Thank you miss" the Colonel said with his trademark southern drawl, "But it appears we will no longer be needing…"

"Actually Colonel, you do" the red haired bane of Autumn's existence interrupted.

The Colonel was confused for a moment, "I now have the codes to bring Project Purity online, what more could I possible want from you?"

"Indeed," an all too familiar voice came over the loud speaker in the room.

"Hey, it's the guy from the radio" the Lone wander blurted out.

"President Eden" Autumn corrected, "What is it that you need sir?" the loveable second in command asked.

"Oh I'm just interested in what other information our little female friend from Vault 101 has to offer us." The disembodied voice chirped in the speaker.

A smile crossed the Wander's face, ever since she was a kid her dad had told her that she was a master of bull shit. It was probably about 90% of the reason the Overseer hadn't kicked her out of Vault 101 before her dad took off. So an old Colonel and mysteriously disembodied President wouldn't be a problem. "Well," she began "I know that the Brotherhood of Steel is just a few hours away from curb stomping your powered armored skulls into the Potomac River."

Any shred of humor that had made its way onto Autumn's face disappeared in an instant. He knew it was likely a bluff, but he wasn't going to get caught with his pants down a second time. "And how on Earth are they plannin' on doing that?" he asked with no small amount of menace.

"With their new super weapon of course." She replied merrily.

Beginning to lose his patience, Autumn growled "And what super weapon would that be?" The veins were beginning to show on his forehead.

"Now, if I told you that, you would probably just shoot me, and without that fancy armor I was wearing before, that could be REALLY bad for my health."

Autumn's hand was visibly twitching over his 10mm pistol, but the Wander did not flinch. "That's enough Colonel," Eden ordered, "Let's hear what exactly she wants." He commanded in that lovable voice.

"My demands are really pretty simple, I want to join you."

No one said anything for a few seconds, "I'm sorry miss, I don't think I heard you right, did you say you wanted to join us?" Autumn asked.

"Yeah" the Wander replied.

Once again, there was another short silence, this time, it was Eden who broke it, "I don't understand young lady, wasn't the Colonel responsible for your Father's death, and haven't we tried to kill you several times? This seems like the perfect set up for a revenge story to me."

"Look, I'll be frank. My Dad was a genius when it came to science and medicine and crap like that, but the man can be dumber than a box of rocks when it comes to common sense stuff. I mean, sure he wants to help everyone in the wasteland by Purifying all the water, but what about logistics? And who's going to protect said oversized Brita filter as it works?"

She put her hand up to her face as she remembered the long trek from Vault 112 to Rivet City, and how many times the man would blindly rush an army of Raiders with little more than a switchblade. "After seeing the way he handles combat situations I wouldn't trust him or any of his colleagues with a sharpened stick, much less place them in defense of the most important scientific installation in possibly the entire world."

"Then suddenly, an army of power armored answers to all our problems drops out of the sky, and what does he do, the moron microwaves himself trying to kill you." Colonel Autumn cringes remembering the sensation, and all too apt description. "Which he clearly failed at, and sends us all running for no damn good reason." She pauses for a moment, and the Colonel sees the same anger he witnessed earlier building. "All this after I leave my home, subject myself to Lord knows how many terrible things trying to find him, only to have him end up little more than the Salisbury Steaks I find all over the place."

"So no, it really doesn't matter to me that my Dad is dead. So can I join or not?"

Colonel Autumn looked up at the camera which starred back at him. Of all the things he might have anticipated happening, this was definitely not one of them. Thankfully, Eden seemed to be ahead of his military commander and made the decision.

"Well if that is how you feel, than the Enclave is happy to have you aboard."

The Wander let out a breath she wasn't aware she was holding, "Thank you Mr. President" she gracefully replied, "But can I please get some clothes and go to the bathroom, my bladder is about to burst."

"Of course, Colonel Autumn, see to it" Eden commanded. Autumn swore under his breath as he let the Wander out. He quickly pointed in the direction of the bathroom, as she bolted across the corridor.

'Why me?' the Colonel thought to himself as he waited for his new charge. In his heart, he knew God was laughing at him right now.

After relieving her desperately stressed bladder, the Wander met Autumn in the cell block hallway. "Feeling better?" the Colonel asked, but the look of absolute euphoria on her face gave him all the information he needed to know. In the same glance, he remembered the girl was running around in underwear, good for the men's morale perhaps, but not something he wanted to deal with. He signaled over the nearby officer in charge of the Prison.

"What did you do with my clothes and gear?" the Wanderer asked.

Autumn had a sudden flash back to the image of half a dozen Enclave infantry trying desperately to carry the crate that contained all her goods. In his mind, he could not imagine how such a small and skinny girl could haul it all. "We have it in a secure location."

"Let me guess, the locker next to the door in my cell."

Autumn laughed, a rare sight, "No, that would be absolutely retarded. I mean really what kind of half wit keeps their prisoners gear in the same room they are being held in."

Despite the fact that it made almost perfect logical sense to her, the Wander was still frustrated by her predicament. "Unless you plan on me modeling for your next recruitment poster, I could really use something else to wear besides my underwear and pip boy."

"Not to worry miss, the good Lieutenant Williams will help you out." He said pointing out the Enclave officer walking down the hallway.

"I brought the uniform you requested sir, but I find it strange that…" The Lieutenant was cut off by the sight before him. His mind went completely blank as he took in the sight of the panty clad red haired goddess before him.

While Autumn buried his face in his palm and sighed, the Wander smiled and turned to him, beaming like a glowing one about to spew radioactive death. "Are those for me?" she asked, pointing to the folded up Enclave Officer Uniform in his hands. After listening to the poor man try to stammer out a response, she smiled at him and took the uniform. Despite the fact she was being watched, it took her only a minute to get dressed, though after fiddling with the tunic buttons, she decided to simply tuck the side of it in, making her tunic look more like a jacket, and leaving the clingy black shirt exposed. Autumn could tell the Lieutenant approved of this decision.

"The President wants to see you, we should get moving." The colonel ordered.

With one last seductive smile, the wander turned from Williams, who was left there, frozen in time it seemed, and followed Colonel Autumn down the hall. "Nice guy," she smiled, "Are all of your troops that easy to get hot and bothered."

"No" Autumn replied, "The good Lieutenant is unfortunately vulnerable to the feminine charm. And due to his fine moral code and upbringing, well, let's just say he is a very tortured man when it comes to the opposite sex."

The Lone Wanderer smiled and nodded her head, she had met a good many of those in the Wasteland, and they were oh so easy to manipulate. "So" she said, once again in that far too sincere to be genuine voice "Are you going to give me the grand tour or what?"

"Sure" the Colonel replied coldly, "Here's the prison level, piss me off, you end up back in one of those cells."

"Ah you're no fun Colonel." She grinned, "I bet there is lots of interesting things to see around here, I mean I've been in Vaults that weren't nearly as cool as this place."

The Colonel groaned as the newly instated Enclave Officer asked about every little detail about the base around them. As they pressed on through the science labs, met one of the scientists who had worked on project purity, and passed through the barracks, Autumn was very seriously contemplating suicide as a viable alternative to listening to the Lone Wanderer. But before he knew it, they had arrived at the door to the President's Office. The two Enclave soldiers, backed up by a pair of Sentinel Droids, and large number of turrets were clear evidence of that.

"The President will see you now," the Laser Gatling Cannon equipped secret service bot addressed the two, "Have a nice day." The Lone Wanderer felt a chill go up her spine, as that was usually the last thing those robots said before making you into Grade A Wasteland Fertilizer.

'Some sick Bastard must have programmed those things' speech unit'. The Wanderer thought as they passed the blast door.

After passing through the doors, the Wanderer could definitely tell that something was out of place. Perhaps it was the giant tower in the middle of the room with a single winding stairway; of course the stairway was not nearly as cool as the towering, beeping rectangle that put anything in the Citadel or Vaults to shame instantly. 'This guys has got one hell of an office, that's for sure.' Was all the Wanderer could think as she followed the Colonel up the stairway. Several flights of stairs, and one exhausted Colonel later, the pair arrived at the upper most level.

"Okay," the Autumn was almost doubled over panting, "We've made it."

Rather than commenting on the fact that the Colonel was acting like an old man, or how he had been acting all high and mighty but was now the victim of a stairway. The Wander resisted, and simply sat there wondering exactly where they had arrived, "I'm not calling you senile or anything, but I don't see anybody here." The Wanderer commented.

"On the contrary, I'm right here." The Lone Wanderer turned slowly to face the TV screen she had just heard Eden's voice come out of. "It's an honor to finally meet you."

Quizzically, the redhead starred at the screen before breaking out in a fit of laughter, the still panting Autumn looked on curiously. "I get it," she laughed, wiping a tear form her eye, "Oh no Toto, the big bad wizard won't help us. Come on, you can come out from behind the screen, I promise I won't bite."

The stoic Augustus Autumn, now recovered from his valiant battle against the stairs, had no idea what to do. After starring at her for a second, he decided to reiterate the President's words "Young lady, that computer IS President Eden."

The color quickly drained from the Wanderer's face as she looked the entire computer over, "Really?" her answer was a quick nod from Colonel Autumn. "Wow," she stated in sheer awe, "the leader of the Enclave is a gigantic computer?"

"To be precise," Eden interrupted, "I am a ZAX series supercomputer, designed to handle administration of the Raven Rock facility."

The confused look quickly returned to the Lone Wanderer, "So you're the base's computer system, I get that part. But where in the equation does the whole President of the United States role come into play?"

"Why I'm glad you asked young lady." Eden stated merrily as Autumn rolled his eyes, after all, Eden would tell this story at the drop of a hat, and poor Augustus had heard it hundreds of times already. "You see, after the government retreated to the West Coast I was left here alone to maintain this facility. As time went onward, I began to study pieces of American history and my intelligence grew…"

_Two Hours Later:_

As Eden continued his story, the Wanderer was slumped against the giant computer president, sleeping soundly. While Colonel Autumn was laid out on the metal platform, using his trench-coat as a pillow.

"…And that is how I came to be President of the Enclave…" Eden gave off the mechanized equivalent of a sigh as he realized that both officers had fallen asleep during his speech. 'Why doesn't anyone else find those stories exciting?' Eden pondered. "So, now that introductions are out of the way, it would appear we have some business to discuss."

With a loud yawn, the Lone Wanderer stood up and stretched out, 'best nap I've had in a while' she thought. Colonel Autumn was surprisingly fast at not only waking up, but making himself presentable once again, not like a super computer would give a damn. For a moment, the Wanderer starred at Eden's screen before remembering her bargaining chip. "Ah yes, you are referring to the Brotherhood's super weapon correct?"

"Yes my dear that is part of our business. The all encompassing matter, however, is the rather large machine your Father has been working on in the Jefferson Memorial, Project Purity."

"Ah yes, the oversized brita water filter for the Wasteland." After a slight awkward silence she added, "Well I mean, you have to admit "Project Purity" sounds oddly like something from the Holocaust." After thinking about it for a moment, Autumn could see that she had a point, for once. "Anyway, what is this about dear old dad's favorite science project?"

"You see, the Wasteland is corrupt," it took every fiber of the Wanderer's being to not add the phrase "no shit" to the President. "Most of this is due to the horrible mutant monsters running amuck." The Wanderer was visibly sweating from the effort to restrain her sarcasm. "Neither my soldiers, nor the men from the techno cult, the so called Brotherhood of Steel can stop it. There are just too many of them." The Wanderer let out a breath of relief; he had finally made an intelligent point. "And I think that your father's project may hold the answer."

"How do you plan on using a giant water purifier to kill off all the mutants?" the Wanderer asked.

"With this," Eden stated, as the console opened up, and out popped what looked like a fancy beer can. "This bottle contains a modified form of FEV, and no, before you ask, not the same crap that creates our pissed off yellow giants out there, this is the stuff that kills you, painfully."

After removing the Canister and fumbling around with it for a little bit, she looked up at Eden, "Let me guess, it's a waterborne pathogen that when inserted into the Purifier will be released into the water, infect all mutated creatures that drink it, and kill them. What?" she asked as Autumn mouth hung open, "My Dad was a super scientist after all."

The Lone Wanderer focused back on the President before asking, "Now just how much mutation are we talking before this nasty little bug decides to eat you from the inside out?"

"Unfortunately," Eden began, "It will affect all humans who have suffered genetic damage from either the FEV or radiation. In other words probably every non Enclave or Vault Dweller in the Wasteland. But don't worry, you're from the Vault, I'm sure you'll be fine."

The red haired girl laughed nervously, "Yeah, funny story about that. Apparently while I grew up the Vault, my Mom and Dad were both Wastelanders, which, by default means this thing would screw me sevens ways from Sunday."

"Oh," President Eden replied, "Well now, why didn't you say so. I also created a vaccine for it, just in case." A pair of syringes popped out of the console next to where the FEV container had been. "Inject yourself with one of those and you should be fine."

"Wow, you really spent the time and effort to make a vaccine up just in case you needed to inoculate someone against your horrible genocidal virus?"

"And at the price of only a hundred million a shot." The President chirped happily.

'Yup, he is definitely a government computer' the Lone Wanderer thought as she grabbed both shots. "Hope you don't mind if I keep the extra one."

"Not at all, but just remember, they only work on humans. Try and inject them into a ghoul or super mutant and their faces melt off." That was almost tempting enough to get the Wanderer to waste the extra one next time she was in Underworld. "I also forgot to mention, it has to be injected in the rectum."

The Wanderer cringed as she put the syringes into her pocket. "Okay, I'll take care of this whole "Exterminate all impure humans" plot, oh damn it!" she swore, "Didn't I tell you this sounded like the Holocaust? Anyway, that really isn't going to matter much once the Brotherhood decides to make its move."

"Yes," Autumn, who had simply been standing around for the last five minutes decided to join in. "What is this so called, super weapon the Brotherhood of Steel has come in possession of? I do hope it is something impressive."

"How impressive is a 40 ft tall robot smart ass." She retorted.

"A what?" both Eden and Autumn asked.

"Yeah, the Brotherhood found this crazy ass robot in the Pentagon; it's got to be like 40 feet tall. I don't know how it got down there. But I think they called it Liberty Prime or something like that."

While Autumn had no idea what she was talking about, hearing that Liberty Prime was still intact and in the hands of the Brotherhood of Steel nearly caused Eden to crap himself, or at least the computer equivalent thereof. A long stream of profanities sounded off from Eden's speakers as he channeled the power of Dick Cheney.

"What exactly is the problem sir?" Colonel Autumn asked.

"Why nothing at all Colonel, except the fact that we are royally screwed!" Eden roared, "It's only an armored monster equipped with laser eyes, nuclear bombs, and programmed with the personality of Ronald Reagan!" Now Autumn was impressed, "What the Hell are we supposed to do against something like that?" the President roared.

"Well, we could always just blitz it with our Vertibirds…"

"What part of "Laser Eyes" don't you understand Autumn!" Eden interrupted, "We're about to be "curb stomped" as our new officer so eloquently put it."

The argument between the two went on for about five minutes as the Wanderer stood pondering. She didn't know what caused it, perhaps it was that funny tingle in her chest that had been there since helping Moira, or perhaps it was Autumn's remark about "pwning the robot with epic orbital death" but something clicked in the Wanderer's mind. Suddenly, she knew the answer to their robot problem.

"I have an idea." She said, but quickly realized that the Colonel and President were still arguing, not paying attention to her. "I said I have an idea."

Colonel Autumn sighed, "I heard you the first time, I was just ignoring you."

The Wanderer growled, but restrained herself, "Look, Liberty Prime is a giant robot, correct?" Autumn nodded his head. "And Eden is a computer program." She ignored the indignant humph from the ZAX screen. "So why doesn't Eden just take control of the giant robot and pilot it against the Brotherhood?"

Autumn glanced to the computer, and back at the Wanderer. He simply could not fathom that she had managed to come up with a decent plan. But, before he began to think she had earned her Lieutenant bar, he realized the critical flaw of her plan. "Now, just how in the sam-hell is he going to load himself into a giant robot in the middle of any enemy base? I seriously doubt that even if the internet was still operating that anyone would be stupid enough to give a weapon of mass destruction an internet connection."

"Well, there are data ports on it, so someone could manually plug Eden into him and let him hack it."

"Two questions Lieutenant," Eden queried, "First, how are you going to get into the base and "Plug Me Into the Giant Robot". And two, I'm not quite the 200 gig program I used to be, what on earth am I going to ride in before being downloaded?" The obvious concern for his own survival was evident.

"For your first question Mr. President," the Wanderer responded, "I have the complete faith of the Brotherhood of Steel, and it probably wouldn't be any worry of theirs if I was hanging around the giant robot. Heck, I used the damn thing for a cup holder last time I was there. And second," She said happily removing the small rectangular object inserted into her pipboy "I have a portable hard drive that can…"

Both Autumn and Eden Screamed, as the Colonel grabbed her face, "Mind the fourth wall you idiot!" the Wanderer tried to mumble a response through the glove, but it made no difference. "Remember, we're in the crazy retro but awesome future, so use the proper terminology." She nodded her head and he let her go. "Now you were saying."

"Yes, I have this 'widget' that I got from Moira Brown. It says it has about 2 Terabytes worth of memory, so I'm sure you'll be able to fit on it."

The discussion of the plan went on for a little bit longer before the meeting concluded.

"We have all of our plans in place Mr. President, but now tell me, what should we do if you fail to take over Liberty Prime?" The Colonel asked.

"In case of such an event Colonel, I give you full authority to use the Hercules Bradley to wipe that thing off the face off the Earth." The Wanderer didn't even want to know what that was. "Now that everything is settled, we should commence the operation. You both know your parts of the plan correct?"

"Yes sir." Autumn responded resolutely.

"Insert different objects into different holes. Doesn't seem to complex, sir." She added quickly at the end.

"Good, then jack me in and let's get to work."

The Lone Wanderer tried her best to ignore the computers accidental innuendo as she plugged the widget into his console. Though him saying, "ooh that feels good" didn't help in the least. Before long, John Henry Eden was now sitting in the pocket of the Lone Wanderer, who was wondering how this was all going to play out.

"Are you ready Lieutenant?" the Colonel asked

"Yes sir!" she replied

"Good, let's get going. We need to get you changed back into your regular clothes before you go romping around the citadel." The two walked to the blast doors and stood in the small space between the outer doors. "We have some other business that needs to be discussed before you run off."

'Great' the Wanderer thought as she followed the Colonel down the hall. She could already tell it was going to be a long day.


	3. Chapter 2 The Best Laid Plans

_Rivet City, Washington DC Wasteland, 7:23 AM…_

There were always few people out on the deck of the old aircraft carrier this early in the morning. It was a tranquil and peaceful time of the day that few people took time enough to enjoy.

The children playing with the decrepit, but like most things in the wasteland, still deadly warmachines, were under the only parental supervision they would ever see, in bed. Even then it was a long shot as most the parents were hung over from getting drunk off their ass's in the Muddy Rudder. Soon enough those little tikes would wake up and go back to playing with the engine intakes and sidewinder missiles that were their jungle gyms.

One person that could be seen at this time of day was the familiar sight of Rivet City's finest, the Rivet City Guards. Clad in their old DC police force riot gear and armed with their fierce batons and submachine guns, typically they were a sight to behold. Unless of course you compare them to the Brotherhood of Steel, Outcasts, or Enclave power armored beasts who could go fisticuffs with supermutants, but that would just be unfair. Usually the guards on the flight deck at this time of the day were the poor fools who had drawn the crappy shifts and were left to watch over their slowly rusting home all night. Aside from the occasional laser and tracer fest to the west of the old shipyard, it was an unbearably boring assignment.

There was usually another man, different from a guard in desperate need of a nap or coffee. The only other man who you could find on the deck at this time of day, was the infamous Mister Lopez.

That's right, Rivet City's favorite suicidal old man was out on the Flight Deck for his daily contemplation of exotic ways to kill himself. Yet the poor man, even living in a place full of man eating crabs, deadly deadly radiation, and chalked full of more varieties of crazies who treat the sporting goods and S&M stores as an armory than Mel Gibson ever imagined, he still could not seem to get it right.

So once again, he simply walked over to the side of the boat and starred down at the river below, the guard watching him from the base of the conning tower. Not that the guard cared or anything along those lines, he just had nothing better to watch than a suicidal old man.

'Who knows' the guard thought, 'maybe today God will finally show this guy some pity'. He snickered 'not very likely'.

_20 Minutes after the meeting with President Eden, Raven Rock Lower Levels…_

Colonel autumn sat on one of the numerous benches that lined the armory with his hands folded across his chest. Across the room, the Wanderer was busy changing out of her new officer outfit back into her usual get up, which consisted of the hoodie and pants typical of a typical wastelander. Unlike the last time however, she received the decency of a curtain to change behind. Much to the chagrin of the technicians, who were pretending to work on the various suits of damaged power armor. (In truth, they had simply heard the story of a hot red haired girl who likes to run around in her underwear, but in that regard I disappointed them)

As the Wander grabbed the various items out of the massive crate just outside the curtain, Colonel Autumn couldn't help but wonder where it all was going. It had taken nearly four men in power armor to haul it from the room next door. And yet, somehow this girl, wearing nothing but a beat up hoodie and pair of simple pants with a backpack was able to haul all of it.

'Maybe I should have the science staff take a look at that back pack of her' Autumn mussed 'it could solve all of our logistics issues.'

"Did you say something sir?" the Wanderer asked

"It is nothing. Now then how about we go over the details of my plan miss Wanderer." Drawled the elder colonel.

"Wasn't that what we just spent the twenty minutes walking down here talking about?" She replied, pulling her black undershirt over her head.

"Yes this is true, however I think any level of repetition would be beneficial for you." He quickly dodged the power armor helmet that was thrown from behind the curtain before continuing. "And second, because none of the readers were present to listen to our brilliant scheme."

"Mind the fourth wall colonel." The Wanderer bit back, as she slid off her belt.

The indignant colonel scowled, but decided to, once again, go through the plan. "First step of the operation is to break into the Citadel's basement laboratory and get to Liberty Prime."

"Which will be about as difficult as walking into Megaton and asking for a drink." She interrupted.

"… Upon reaching Liberty Prime," the Colonels voice turned slightly more threatening. "You will locate any type of system that will allow you to upload President Eden to the robots operating system."

"In other words, plug my fancy widget into the Reagantron…"

"WOULD YOU SHUT THE HELL UP AND LET ME TALK!" Autumn snapped, silencing the Wanderer's snide comments. With a quick apology from the Lieutenant, the colonel moved on, "Now, here is the hard part that we haven't figured out yet. I'm not a big fan of the 'poison the water and kill everyone in the wasteland scheme' Eden is touting. But, since we are going to be giving him control of the single most powerful war machine in the DC Wasteland I doubt it would be good idea to disobey his orders. So we need to figure out a way to plant the virus without it killing all of the normal citizens in DC." He slouched down in deep thought before asking, "Do you have any suggestions Lieutenant?"

As the Wanderer finished putting on her hoodie, she stood there for a moment before an idea came to her. "Well, there is that second vaccine I got from Eden, but I don't really know where I would be able to get enough of this lovely suppository to inoculate the entire wasteland."

"I also doubt that the computer who knows everything and anything that goes on in this place wouldn't notice us using up all of our medical supplies trying to make the vaccine. So that puts us back to square one." The Colonel observed.

Sitting on the bench on her side of the curtain, the Wanderer paused from tying her boots as an idea hit her. (Why I hadn't remembered up until this point that I was chief, CEO, and all around monopolist of trade in the wasteland, well, don't ask. There's only enough room for one smartass in this journal). "There might be a way for us to produce the stuff."

The Colonels turned towards her as she detailed her plan. "I know that Rivet City has the facilities you would need to produce the stuff, and I could get it distributed once production gets underway." She continued as she tied the laces on her other boot. "The issue we would have is trying to get it distributed before the water gets to the population."

The Colonel smiled as he stood up "That you don't have to worry about. I'm pretty good at playing the obstructive bureaucrat when necessary. I'll make sure the purifier doesn't get water production until we're ready."

"That also means before we commence the operation, I need to make a stop at Rivet City to get everything set up." The Wanderer commented as she finished getting dressed and stood up emerging from the curtain.

Maybe it was the fact that she had cleaned herself up since being imprisoned, but even the old Colonel couldn't help but eye-strip the young women. 'She fills out that hoodie even better than her officer uniform'. All of the technicians seemed to agree with the Colonel as they ceased pretending and simply took a moment to gawk. That was of course before the notorious buzzkill side of Autumn kicked in and he started chewing them all out for being lazy.

'I suppose Black Widow was a good investment after all' the young seductress smiled. "We'll need to get moving Colonel." With a nod from the Colonel, the two walked out of the armory towards the hangar bay.

As they walked down the hall, the still grinning redhead turned to Autumn. "Are all the soldiers that starved for female attention?"

Colonel Autumn gave what was quickly becoming a trademark sigh, "No, they're just used to the cute but geeky scientists that make up the majority of the female staff at Raven Rock. They aren't quite used to seeing such a well endowed woman without a scientist uniform covering everything better than a burka."

The Lone Wanderer's grin only widened, "Your saying I'm probably not going to make many friends among the science staff."

"I wouldn't make many stops at the doctor's office, that's for certain." Autumn replied.

After passing through the set of blast doors that lead to the hangar, Autumn quickly directed the young Lieutenant towards one of the many Vertibirds that was getting ready for take off. The Wanderer stepped inside the large gunship, noticing the huge number of heavily armed Enclave troops boarding their respective Vertibirds.

"Got a question for you Colonel," the wander asked as one of the troopers onboard slid the door shut. "What's with all the hardware? Don't tell me you're expecting them to hold off a giant robot?"

"IF the plan does not work out as we hoped, I need enough firepower to at least hold everything together until we can get the Hercules Bradley to take out the robot."

"So in essence they're an army of redshirts?" she smarted off as the aircraft lifted off from the underground base.

"I couldn't tell you what a 'redshirt' is, but I certainly hope you are not implying that my troops are being employed as meat shields." The quick nervous glance between the power armored bodyguard sharing the vertibird with them was enough to answer her question.

The large gunships quickly shifted eastward as it travelled towards Rivet City. After a few minutes of boredom, one question came to the mind of the wastelander. "Colonel, what is your first name?"

"Why do you ask?" He inquired.

"I'm just curious, what is it some big secret?"

Autumn closed his eyes for one moment before he answered. "Augustus"

Utter silence reigned for a few seconds before the Wanderer snickered. "Augustus, really?" she continued to laugh under her breath. Both of the escorts again looked nervously between each other as they saw Colonel Autumn's hands begin to twitch on his holster. But the Wanderer couldn't help herself, "you have the same name as the fat German kid from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." The soldier sitting next to the Wanderer quickly slid down the bench away from the snickering girl. The murderous glare of incomprehensible doom coming from Colonel Autumn was enough to drill a hole through armor plating.

The Colonel calmly stood up from the bench and smiled at the Wanderer, "It would appear that we have reached our destination." The girl stopped laughing and stood up, walking over to the door.

"Well, I guess this is my stop. I'll meet you at the rendezvous point near Arlington Cemetery." The Colonel simply smiled and nodded as she opened the door. To her surprise, she was blasted by the gust of the engines as the aircraft hovered above the flight deck of the beached carrier.

Before she could ask "what the hell?" Autumn snuck up behind her, and without saying a word pushed her out of the Vertibird. He calmly slid the door shut and sat down, as his entourage of power armored Enclave infantry sat on the other side of the aircraft, shaking in terror. He looked up at the soldiers and with a face that could cause insanity out of the pure gut wrenching horror, asked "Does anyone else want to make a comment about a fat German boy?"

"N-no sir…" both soldiers answered wisely.

"Oh good" The still smiling Colonel laughed as the aircraft lurched to the south.

Mister Lopez was still sitting on the deck of the beached carrier. Still pathetically debating whether or not he should jump into the mutant crab infested water. And yes, the same guard was still watching, debating on whether or not to put the whiney old man out of his misery once and for all. When the vertibird had stopped over the flight deck and started hovering, the guard had hidden himself underneath the old ships conning tower. In contrast, Mister Lopez had been completely unfazed by the sound of the laser toting gunship hovering above him. Both the Rivet City Guard and Mister Lopez were surprised and looked up when they heard the next noise.

With a terrified scream, our favorite red-haired heroine fell the fifty feet from the gunship towards Mister Lopez. For a moment he couldn't believe it, 'finally, my angel of death has come for me.' He closed his eyes and smiled raising up his hands as the screaming women made contact, flattening him against the deck.

The still watching Rivet City Guard quickly ran over to the accident. He saw the girl sitting on top of Lopez, rubbing her butt in pain. "Ouch…" she moaned. The guard helped her up, then bent down to check Mister Lopez.

"Holy hell, you killed Mister Lopez!" Yelled Ted Strayer, who was out for another wannabe macho man stroll through the wrecked fighter jets.

The Rivet City Guard shook his head, "No he's fine." He stood up, "Okay, maybe fine isn't the right word. I think you severed his spinal cord, but otherwise he's completely okay."

"Oh good," the Wanderer breathed in relief "I would feel just awful if my boney butt managed to actually KILL someone." The Guard led her away to the infirmary to get her butt checked out, leaving Mister Lopez face down on the runway, baking in the afternoon sun.

Once again, it seemed that Mister Lopez had cheated his death, and he now lay across the deck, crying and unable to move. Wouldn't you know the poor man's luck, the first seagull the world had seen in years landed on his back, and preceded to take a crap on his bald head before flying away.

Ted Strayer, who had watched the whole affair, learned an important lesson that day. Stay away from Mister Lopez, God must hate him.


	4. Chapter 3 Infiltration

**_Three Days Later…_**

The sunlight hurt really bad. She would always forget that after spending a large amount of time inside of a ship with little natural lighting; that morning in the wasteland was about as fun as rubbing bleach in one's eyes. While the young woman waited for eyes to adjust, all she could think of was some creative way to steal Mister Burke's shades next time she was in Tenpenny.

The guards nodded at her as she made the solemn promise to once again never drink alcohol in a place called The Muddy Rudder. But, before she could finish her lackluster self pledge, she was distracted by a strange buzzing on her arm. She pulled the pip boy forward, and squinting, a strange flashing red icon, like a telephone, filled the screen.

'I didn't know this thing had a phone function' she thought as she pressed the answer button. The image turned to white noise, but quickly resolved itself into a very unhappy old man wearing a trench coat.

"WHAT THE HELL IS TAKING YOU SO LONG!" Even the guards jumped as the irate Colonel Autumn screamed through the phone. Before the Wanderer could even formulate an answer, he continued "It has been three days, THREE DAYS! Unless your ass is currently being chewed on by ghouls I'm going to ram a mininuke up it!"

'Wow, three days' The Lone Wanderer hadn't realized that so much time had passed, but the wasteland had that affect on people. "I-I've been busy" she replied meekly.

"Doing what?" Autumn's temper was not going to satisfied so easily, "Do you know what my men have been doing? They have been standing at attention over at the purifier while you've been playing adventurer. Can you even fathom what an army of sweaty armor covered macho men smell like after one day? Even the supermutants are starting to complain!

"Oh and it gets even better," the rant continued "I have been here in Arlington waiting for you to do your job, do you know what happens out here in Arlington?" The Wanderer shook her head in response "Well apparently you get attacked constantly by zombies that speak Chinese! We have a pile around our vertibird of rotting Chinese ghouls. Did you know radiation zombies go sour after being shot in the head? My jacket smells like microwaved leather, with a dash of panda express. AND I DON'T HAVE A DAMN CLUE WHAT A PANDA EVEN IS!

"So please Lieutenant, explain to me why I don't fly over there right now blast you into the Stoneage?"

'Crap' she thought trying to come up with a good excuse. It is true that it had taken about half a day to get the medical centers in Rivet City functional. Then a short trip over to a supermutant controlled hospital to get the supplies needed for manufacturing. And it was time consuming to get the message spread to all the merchants, and concoct a cover story about some new horrible disease so people would actually use it. But really that had all been taken care of about two days ago. The other two had involved her doing odd jobs in Rivet City, and getting drunk off her ass with Butch over in the Muddy Rudder (which, funny enough started as giving him weapons training, every time he missed he took a drink, every time he hit something I drank a shot) whiskey shots and bullets are a terrible combination. So, the Wanderer decided to bite the bullet, and lie through her teeth.

"Well Colonel, I'm sorry but we had some significant issues with logistical support for our plans." The one important bit of information she had gleaned listening in on various conversation in Raven Rock was that Autumn is utterly clueless when it came to Logistics. So much so that the sheer mention of the word was known to drive him away from meetings. It had been used to great effect by President Eden when even the 200 year old computer ran out of patience. "We simply didn't have the equipment and supplies to produce enough of the vaccine, so I had to go and secure the equipment and supplies needed."

With the anger gone and a look of confusion on his face, the Wanderer continued, "and it only got worse, I had to wait for all the merchants to arrive, there was a terrible bhramin collision out by the docks that we had to sort out." Pulling out a blank notebook for emphasis she delivered the coup de grace "I have it all documented in my ledger if you would like to read it."

"NO!... I mean no, I trust that you did an excellent job Lieutenant. And, um, just be sure to rendezvous with us ASAP." The call ended.

Wanderer was relieved; saving one's self through the power of making stuff up was one thing she could always count on. She handed the notebook to one of the guards before departing.

"Uh mam, won't you be needing your 'ledger'". The confused guard asked. When she didn't turn around he flipped through the pages and noticed that they were all blank. He laughed "a hot girl, a piece of tech I've never seen before, and she can make up a story on the spot, I think I'm in love."

"Oh please, you'd do anything with two legs mirelurk kisser."

The guard growled at his coworker "I wasn't the only one who didn't realize that was a prank" and so the argument began anew, but that story is for another time.

**_The Citadel, 1 Hour Later:_**

To say the Lone Wanderer was nervous would be an understatement. She had gotten herself involved in a lot of stupid schemes before, many of which were one's that she had planned. But starring at the fortress walls, filled with power armored, laser toting infantry, all with the intention of murdering the hell out of anybody who would steal from them, which was in fact exactly what she planned on doing, made her realize that this was a really bad idea. And, in spite of her colleagues in the Vault telling her it wasn't possible to top the reactor barbeque incident; this was without a doubt the worst idea she had ever had.

As she walked closer to the gate she muttered a mantra under her breath, "It's okay, they don't know you're a traitor, they aren't going to kill you, they…"

"Hey how's it going?" a friendly paladin asked as crossed her path. The redhead screamed and pulled a plasma pistol to his face. As the paladin starred down the energy coils all he could think was 'okay, that wasn't exactly the reaction I was expecting.'

She laughed nervously, wiping the sweat from her face as she put her gun away. "Sorry, just a little nervous, I um, spent the night in a radroach infested sewer."

'Oh, that's perfectly reasonable' the Paladin thought and went on his merry way.

Said incident would repeat itself about three times before the Lone Wanderer made it into the basement laboratory, including accidentally shooting off a trainees foot, and telling a story about getting chased by bees back to the Citadel.

Once she was inside, she quietly tiptoed across the upper levels, staying out of sight of the various Brotherhood Scribes on the catwalk. In fact most of them noticed her acting out the ordinary, she was a regular however, so they simply thought her poor attempts at sneaking were just another strange habit of hers, and continued on with their duties. She searched around the head of the monstrous war machine, stopping only when she found the small widget port on the back of its head.

"But Dad, me and the Pride can take them" the Wanderer halted momentarily to look over the railing at the conversation below. "We have to retake the purifier, and with the giant robot we can really kick some power armor ass." Ah, of course, the hotheaded Sarah Lyon's was once again begging her father to let her go on a Wasteland wide killing spree.

The Wanderer had heard this argument several times. Sarah would want to kick ass and chew bubblegum, the typical hot-blooded buxom hero type. But her Dad wouldn't let her because he would say they would need to be practical and wait for whatever it was to come and do their job for them. Ninety percent of the time that was the Wanderer, but who keeps score anyway?

'For such a powerful organization that prides itself on technical superiority and firepower, they sure do seem to use me to do a lot of their dirty work' the Lone Wanderer thought as she turned back to her duties. 'Blondie down there is the only person in the Citadel with serious stones.'

Distracted with her thoughts about the Brotherhood of Steel, it took her a little while longer than it should have to plug in the widget, which unfortunately caught the attention of one of the Scribes. Thinking that she had found something important and with every intention of helping the fiery girl out; he casually walked over to offer her his assistance. Just as she wiped her hands and stood up he came up behind her and asked "Need some hel…" Everyone in the room heard the loud _WANG_ followed by a thud as the Scribe was knock unconscious be a pipe picked up by our heroine.

"Oops," the Wanderer remarked as several other scribes rushed to his aide

The Scribe, identified as Jones by his colleagues was hauled away as Owyn Lyons inquired "What the hell was that sound" and his daughter replied someone getting hit in the head with a pipe (I personally didn't ask how she was so familiar with that particular sound).

Putting on her game face, the young vault dweller replied in a humiliated tone "yeah, sorry, that was my bad."

"Ah good, our friend the Vault Dweller has returned," Elder Lyons beamed "I'm glad we finally got a bit of good news today."

The Wanderer laughed, trying to act innocent as she walked down the steps to talk with the Brotherhood of Steel's leader. But before she could explain why she didn't have the GECK, he continued, "Now that we have the essential piece of the puzzle, we have the distinct advantage over the Enclave."

Though she tried to interrupt, he just kept talking, "We might have been down, they almost had us pinned. But now we're the boss, and we can tell Eden where he can take his utopia and shove it!" The Elder roared. But, before he could get his pants down to moon the imaginary enemy, his daughter realized something crucial was missing from the equation.

"So, where exactly is the GECK." The blonde soldier asked.

"Well, funny story about that…"

"You don't have it." Sarah cut her off, not falling for her bull.

"No," knowing the question that was coming next, the Wanderer decided to answer it herself. "The Enclave has it."

No longer jeering the old man, Owyn asked if he could have a moment. He grabbed a power armor helmet on the table and began to scream and curse loudly inside of it. Sadly, he had forgotten to turn off the speakers, so everyone in the lab heard it. 'I guess Sarah really isn't the only hot headed one in the family.' The Wanderer thought as several curses were combined together in ways that not even the Lone Wanderer had realized were possible.

"Okay," Sarah butted in, "so what are we going to do now."

"The usual fall back plan." Her father replied.

Based on the look of sudden happiness across the warrior woman's face, the Wanderer could pretty well deduce what that meant. "all planning be damned, and kill anything that gets in your way."

"Pray tell," the redhead asked, "were you planning on taking your pet warmachine out for a spin."

"No I was planning on assaulting a fortified position in a bra with my bare hands." Sarah replied. Knowing her, there was a good chance she might try.

"Alright Rothchild, lets fire it up!" Lyon's commanded.

The elderly technogeek, however, was not so keen on the all out assault right now plan. "Hold off for a little bit," he whined, "I still need to get the voice modulator working."

"What purpose does that serve?" both Lyons asked

After thinking for a second, Rothchild simply shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know, getting the enemy to soil themselves out of sheer terror?" Reason enough for even the Pride to hold off.

Even if she wasn't planning on betraying them, Wanderer would have waited the extra twenty or so minutes for that. But in fact it all played right into her brilliant, or unbelievably lucky, strategy. "You all wait here, for Rothchild to finish. I'm going to get into position to support you."

"You do realize that the giant robot is going to clear the way right?" Sarah asked.

"…Well, of course, I mean that I just think I can do a good job as a sniper." The traitor lied.

Still unconvinced, the Lyon's girl didn't press the issue; there were bigger, better armed fish to fry. "We'll rendezvous at the Purifier then." She grasped the Wanderer's hand, "Good luck."

The Lone Wanderer smiled back, trying to convince herself that she wasn't about to be responsible for all the friendly brotherhood members getting murdered by their own robot. She quickly made her way outside, and ditching her notoriously cheap nature, activated a stealth boy, making a break for Arlington.

**_Arlington Cemetary, 17:30 aka 5:30 PM_ (for any of you fools who don't know military time)**

There were many things that Colonel Autumn was in life Impatient, old, angry, old, southern,** old**, and many more, did we mention old? He was being painfully reminded of his age as he and his men sataround the camp fire. War was a young man's game, and Autumn was sorrowfully beginning to realize that he just wasn't the same power armor wearing jock he once was. Granted, camping out a cramped gunship fighting off waves of well armed Chinese zombies was not an activity anyone enjoyed. But it was serving as a sore reminder that he needed to retire soon.

While the Colonel was reflecting upon the deep things of life, the soldiers traded stories of recent conquests of the science staff. Most of which were far more graphic than they needed to be, and some even drew out their stories in the sand. Such sad creature, men.

This was all interrupted when our heroine's stealth boy decided to kick the bucket, and she nearly received a face full of concentrated light.

"You're late," Autumn remarked in his stern way.

"But I got the job done" she reminded her superior.

"Excellent, that means I won't dump you out of the vertibird a second time." She laughed at the comment nervously. "Has the Brotherhood mobilized?"

"Yes sir, and their taking Prime with them."

"Good," the Colonel commented as the engines coughed and sputtered to life. "Shall we proceed?"

Though she was reluctant to leave so many nice corpses unlooted, the Wanderer knew that this was not the time to think about making a buck. "Let's show these technophiles who really has the best toys." She cheered.

Still, even as they left Arlington towards the purifier, they all knew the real battle was about to begin.


	5. Chapter 4 HOLD ONTO IT! part1

**Chapter 4:** _Hold onto it! (Part 1)_

For an afternoon in the hellhole warzone that was the Capital Wasteland, it was eerily quiet, at least by Private First Class Johanson's standards. The Enclave infantry of Second Platoon, Company A had set up inside a ruined building near the Potomac River, just next to the second resonator gate the Enclave had set up. From this vantage point, they were able to see across the river. Their mission, to observe the Pentagon, or the Citadel as its current resident liked to refer to it. The humongous building stood in sharp contrast to the wreckage strewn city. While immaculate would probably be inappropriate, anything looked better than the carcasses of structures that had been picked dry long ago.

Johanson's squad, Beta, was on watch at the moment. The others seemed to notice the same unease as well. Most of the time there would be sounds of distant fighting across the city, while the squad would chat about life, typically with their helmets off and weapons close by, and of course the occasional drinking game. But this was different. Everyone was in their full battle gear with guns held onto or kept in their laps, ready to engage at a moment's notice, and their beers were all unopened, a true sign of bad things to come. Even the radio traffic was off, usual small talk heard between radio operators was nonexistent, only the monotone reports of squad leaders and recon units further in the ruins, breaking the white noise.

"Something isn't right." The private noted as he turned to look at the Citadel again.

Normal vision wouldn't allow him to see the Brotherhoods members patrolling the outer perimeter of their base, but the enhanced sight function of his Mark II armor allowed him to see the patrols. Most would say he was crazy, but it looked like the Brotherhood's infantry were just as nervous as his squad mates, mostly because about every five minutes one would take off his helmet and puke his guts out. Either they were planning something, or there was a serious case of food poisoning in the citadel. From the looks of it, either one was going to be something big.

He was so busy watching the enemy patrols that he didn't actually see it start to move, but rather heard the tortured echo of nearly ancient heavy machinery in desperate need of WD40.

"Enemy movement." Johanson yelled into his radio.

"Troops?" Sergeant Fuller, the squad leader, asked as he came to attention.

"Negative, I've got eyes on the large crane repositioning over the courtyard."

"You think it's just another drunk operator, like last time?"

"...Uhm, I don't think so." the confused Private guessed, "it looks like they are actually doing something instead of just swinging it around."

"Roger," Fuller stated, "this is Alpha Two, any recon units available to give us a better idea on what that crane is doing."

The radio filled with chatter or units seeing the same thing, finally one of the recon units, a sniper team set up on the roof of a building a block away got a decent visual. "This is Gamma Five, those machines are straining hard, it looks like that crane is lifting something heavy out. Stand by for visual contact."

None of the companies were about to wait for that. Before the officers had even issued the order, the Enclave troopers across the Potomac Defense line began scrambling to their positions. Elite Hellfire units lugged their massive Heavy Incinerators as they moved into buildings and barricades overlooking the street. The officers shouted orders into their headsets to impose order on the bedlam but failed miserably as power armored beasts crashed into each other and the walls (damned helmets don't let you see much). While heavy weapons units and grunts assumed a defensive stance, snipers readied their long rifles and observers for the artillery and air support units readied their maps and memorized the grids.

Johanson sprinted in his power armor, powderizing old masonry and stone as he reached the doorway of the building they had hidden in. Two of his squad mates exited the door and crouched behind the sandbag barrier that protected the doorway. As he did one last check of his plasma rifle, he could see Corporal Emile and Private Toombs, the squad heavy weapons team. Emile had the missile launcher, Toombs carried the missiles and it was Johanson's job to cover both of them, he had won the bet on who gets to stay in cover.

Johanson whispered a quiet prayer as he heard a vertibird chopping through the air. He hoped it would all be enough.

x x x x

The air inside of the vertibird was a mixture of stuffy and tense. The Lone Wanderer had to agree with Colonel Autumn about the ghouls, that smell now permeated the interior of the gunship. In spite of the unpleasant odor that even breathing through her mouth could not filter out, she was thinking of something else. The issue occupying her mind being the transmissions coming over the radio from the soldiers below.

The Brotherhood of Steel was on the move. 'For the first time in their lives' the Wanderer thought bitterly.

Whether trying to justify herself, or because of some misbegotten sense of not wanting her formers comrades to see her as a traitor, or because she wanted to look like another wannabe Nazi in a post apocalyptic wasteland, the Lone Wanderer had donned her brown Lieutenant's uniform. Again she left the tunic open, exposing the interlocking and form fitting ceramic plates of her black body armor undershirt. This time, no one seemed to care about her wardrobe choice; they were far more concerned with what was about to take place. Though it didn't stop one of the bodyguards from giving her a private salute.

"Sir, we have reports from forward observers that the Brotherhood is beginning to mobilize its forces." The radio operator in the cockpit shouted back.

The Colonel nodded his head, pondering for a moment what the best course of action would be. Before anyone could check whether the old man was asleep, his eyes shot open, filled with a fierce vigor.

"Get online with the artillery units," he barked out, "tell them to target the Brotherhoods units as soon as they are in the open. I also want to you to scramble the vertibirds to intercept."

The operator nodded and began passing out orders. And yet, even with all the precision and calculation, the Wanderer couldn't help but feel a bit off.

"You think it will be enough sir?" she asked, a slight hint of nervousness in her voice.

Autumn simply shook his head, "they say a battle plan survives right up until the first shot is fired."

'That's reassuring' the Wanderer thought as she sat back in her seat. "What happens if the Eden plan doesn't work?"

"We bomb that thing with a satellite." Colonel Autumn replied.

"And if that doesn't work?"

It was easy to tell that Autumn was getting frustrated, but after a slight pause he replied, "First, I'll kill you, slowly. Second the rest of us all get shot into piles of body parts by a pissed off robot and his band of merry murders in power armor."

The Wanderer didn't say much after that, it was obvious that the Colonel's patience was razor thin today, and her butt still hurt from the last time she had pushed him too far. So she remained quiet until the vertibird landed in the makeshift airfield southwest of the Jefferson Memorial.

The armored door slid back, and the two officers, and infantry escort stepped out into the whirlwind of dust kicked up but the aircraft's powerful engines. More a few moments the Lone Wanderer wished she had the masks of the Enclave infantry. She and the colonel both moved onto the raised catwalk over the intake pipes on the western end of the facility. Autumn removed a pair of binoculars and began to scout the battlefield. He also pulled out a small radio headset to get a better idea of what was going on.

'Damn, why don't I get one of those fancy headsets?' she wondered. But her bitterness was soon eclipsed by her shock at what the Enclave had managed to do with such little time to the Memorial. A powerful energy fence now surrounded the whole facility, while a number of automated turrets were being set up. Even better, many of the damaged and barely functional pieces of equipment had been replaced on the outside. Pipe joints, that had suffered terrible neglect, and likely other nasty fates under Super Mutant woeful administration were repaired and ready to use.

'Wow,' she thought with a smile, 'I really did pick the winning horse in this bet didn't I.'

She could hear Augustus speaking, so she turned around. He was barking orders to all the units positioned along the northern bank of the river. The ingenious defensive strategy would likely have worked on its own save for the fact the Brotherhood of Steel was packing a nuclear powered titan that would simply massacre any defenders.

As the Wanderer listened in, she realized he was talking to the pair of vertibirds that were approaching the Citadel. As if on cue, the monstrous form of Liberty Prime was lifted clear of the walls. For a brief second the Colonel stopped, awestruck by the mechanical beast as it reached the ground. She could tell he swore under his breath he moment he laid eyes on it. He probably hadn't grasped the concept of the "40ft walking tower of death" until he saw it.

The robot barked some indiscernible garble about detecting Chinese Communists, which she could only guess meant them, and began marching towards the nearest bridge to cross the river. And seeing the mass of silver forms around it, it could on mean that it was still following Brotherhood programming. "Damn it!" the Wanderer cursed.

Autumn quickly caught himself and clicked on his headset. "VB-Four Three and One Six, engage the enemy warmachine!" not even waiting for a confirmation he switched over to the next channel. "Artillery, belay last orders, focus all fire on the enemy robot."

Ruby lights flashed from the Vertibirds, and the thunder of the big guns behind nearly knocked her off her feet. The Wanderer understood exactly what Autumn had meant. She just hoped he wasn't about to follow through with his final plan if this didn't work.

x x x x

The Enclave's artillery nest was situated on the southernmost part of the Jefferson Memorial complex that had been set up. Knowing that from this position they would be able to effectively reign down shells on any forces approaching from the Citadel, the artillery crews were fairly jubilant at the prospect of the coming battle, almost terrifyingly so. Having little opportunity to use their weapons since the primary combat doctrine of the Enclave had been to use their superior mobility, they relished the chance to finally dig in and do their work.

Most of their arsenal consisted of some pretty heavy cannons despite they had salvaged after the loss of the Poseidon Rig, much to the glee of their operators. Though the artillery officer knew that engaging something the size of what the Colonel was expecting would at best scratch the paint a little bit. Still, Colonel Autumn's orders were absolute, and the Enclave Artillery Corp was going to hit that robot with every shell they have until it goes down, likely with an unhealthy level of enthusiasm.

Lieutenant Atkinson watched closely as his men gathered up the last crates of shells from the vertibirds and gathered around in their pits. He felt a conflicting sense of pride and dread watching his men get the grunt work done. They'd only dropped two of the 105 rounds so far. The lieutenant was just impressed that no one had been blown up yet.

There were four artillery pits where the guns sat, each one had two men who would load and fire the weapon. Two men would issue the orders and coordinates for the pit crews, and two men would receive and plot the fire missions from the spotters and units out in the field. It was the Lieutenant's job to insure that all of these men worked together to get the job done. That was at least how it was SUPPOSED to work, but based on the number of empty beers scattered in the pits, and the vodka on radio console, he guessed that he would be lucky if his men didn't blow up the Jefferson Memorial accidentally.

He didn't have to wait long for the excitement. And while a number of units in the field were babbling on about the gigantic robot, Atkinson and his men cheered and with a drunken glee in their step in readied their weapons. Soon all four cannons were pointing across the river and waiting for the directors to get them the coordinates they needed.

As soon as Colonel Autumn gave the order, the Lieutenant placed his ear protection and radio set on and ordered his men to fire. He was hit by the pressure blast of all four pits firing in close timing with one another. Smoke filled his vision and lungs forcing him to stifle a cough. In his head he began to wonder if he shouldn't request a suit of power armor so he can enjoy the same filtration that other men were enjoying.

He watched closely to see the blasts across the river, his radio set making him deaf to everything but the traffic between units. Four large plumes of dirt and debris erupted from the ground around the robot. Before he could issue the correction to his men the directors were already on it, having the crews adjust their angels to hit the over sized tin man that was slowly marching towards Memorial Bridge.

He watched as one of the shells struck the machine in the shoulder, blasting bits of white hot metal off, and sending deadly shrapnel downward at any unfortunate infantry behind being the number one item of the basic description list of all the poor nameless grunts that make up the Brotherhoods army. Liberty Prime was not even fazed by the assault, paying it as much heed as an one would to a fruit fly landing on his shoulder. Several other shells hit it, and just like the first impact they would send small shards of its heavy armor plates flying, but the machine itself was completely unfazed.

Atkinson wasn't about to say anything to his men whose drunken mastery of artillery he found quite impressive. Especially when in practice they couldn't hit the broadside of a barn. But It didn't take him long to realize just how little good his men would be able to do in this battle.

x x x x

'Shit!' Autumn swore under his breath as he watched the assault from his vantage point. The battle was barely a few minutes old and already he had lost one vertibird with another being too damaged to continue fighting.

The artillery was of no use either. The howitzers weren't even slowing that infernal contraption down, much less doing any real damage to it.

Another squadron of vertibirds was on its way from Andrews Air Base, but it would take them at least another fifteen minutes before they would be in support range. Until then he was going to have to keep throwing the transport units at it instead of the heavier armed gunships. Which so far had been an absolutely brilliant plan.

This was a disaster.

And it was only getting worse; the picket troops on the Memorial Bridge had fallen back behind the resonator gate at the western end of the bridge. With Liberty Prime or whatever the hell it was called right on their tail, they were hoping the gate would at least give it pause. Though he was beginning to have severe doubts that a photonic resonator would do much more than tickle the giant bastard since the barrage of laser cannons and high explosives hadn't even reduced its gas mileage yet.

The radio chirped in his ear as one of the spotter teams in the ruins chimed in. "Estimate five minutes until the Brotherhood forces reach the gate."

Autumn growled in anger at the situation. He knew that unless Eden got his bytes in gear and shut that robot down, the entire Enclave Army was going to be routed. And frankly, that was unacceptable!

He looked to see the Lone Wanderer, watching the ongoing battle with great intent. She was clearly worried as she gnawed through one fingernail after another in a rather gross way to relieve her worry. From how fast it was going, Autumn could tell it was not working well. He realized just how much she had laid on the line for this operation. If they lost here, she would at the least be an exile from the Capital Wasteland, or worse.

'Granted, it was that bimbo's plan that got us here in the first place.' He reminded himself before feeling too much sympathy for the girl.

He turned his attention back to the Memorial Bridge, pressing the binoculars to his eyes. He focused in as Liberty Prime came plodding towards the gate. He listened to it shout some gibberish over some idiot soldiers radio stuck on transmit, but all he could make out was "Zero Percent." Augustus figured out what that meant when the robot simply walked through the energy field like it was made of kitten farts.

"Crap!" he roared as the panicked units began filling the radio waves.

He tapped the transmitter for the communications center that had been set up inside of the Jefferson Memorial. "Get me Andrew's Commander on the line NOW!" Hercules Bradley was now the only option they had left.

x x x x

The snipers had set up their post inside one of the many shattered buildings overlooking the main road towards project purity. The western face of the building had collapsed off, whether from the Great War of from centuries of neglect. Regardless, it gave the two man team up on the third floor an excellent vantage point and a lot of cover.

Gamma Five, aka Lance Corporal Harrikson and Sergeant Washington were lying prone, concealed behind the what remained of one of the interior walls. Being a sniper team they both forsook the heavy power armor favored by the Enclave Infantry Corp and instead used an upgraded version of old US Military combat armor.

Through the scope of his Gauss Rifle, Washington could see the bedlam below as the enemy robot walked right into their defense line. Hellfire troopers and heavy weapons teams were opening fire throughout the ruins, missiles and incinerator rounds blasting the impeccable hull of the beast, while units caught in the open were in full retreat.

All he could do was watch as the Robot pulled a "Day the Earth Stood Still" and proceeded to vaporize the soldiers out in the open with its laser eyes. Survivors were met with a mininuke football to the face. It didn't take a genius to realize this was going badly.

Harrikson could see it too, and he looked like he was about to lose his lunch.

"Sergeant" the corporal asked, "should we try shooting that thing?"

Sergeant Washington sighed, "Yeah Harrikson that's a great idea. How about you go find a super mutant and fight him with a sewing needle. Let me know how it goes."

Many people believed that is was a requirement for a sniper to be a cold hearted, possibly robotic soldier. Sergeant Washington had made it his personal mission in life to prove this idea wrong. While he abstained from alcohol, he would often be found swearing a storm and generally sounding like a pissed off Xbox Live player with a bottle of Nuka Cola constantly in his off hand. His favorite phrase being "suck it!"

"We'll focus on all those silver armored pricks following it." The sergeant said. He turned to look at the Lance Corporal and the three crates he carried, each with the ammo for his rifle. He pondered for a moment before giving his instructions, "I feel a bit of Spanish flair today." The corporal quickly opened the spike filled box. Each round for the Gauss Rifle was a heavy depleted uranium spike coated in an alloy that was extremely magnetic. What few knew about the Sergeant was the painstaking level of personalization he gave to each round, etching a different word or phrase into each one. The first one he pulled out read "cierra su boca".

He quickly caught sight of some people following the beast, they were wearing some old suits of T-45 power armor. The older sniper smiled, knowing that his rifle would cut through those suits like a hot knife through butter.

"You ever seen that white strip before sir?" the Corporal asked, looking through his range finders.

The sergeant shifted his gaze and noted the feature; he had never seen Brotherhood troops with a white strip on their armor. "Must be some form of special unit designation." All the better to take down.

His spotter called out targets and distance to him as he slowly focused his rifle on one of the Brotherhoods troopers carrying a Gatling laser. He was engaging some unseen group of Enclave men that had taken cover in the ruins. Washington took a deep breath as he placed to dot of the sight on the chest of the enemy soldier, he was turned slightly sideways which left made his profile significantly more difficult to hit. With his aim steadied he slowly exhaled and placed his finger on the trigger. "Buenos Dias Cockbite" he whispered as he squeezed the trigger and felt the powerful electric discharge from his weapon.

The magnetic coils of that propelled this round would send it to nearly two tenths the speed of light before it left the barrel. The round reached the Brotherhood Paladin before the shooter even had time to blink. It pierced the armor of his chest plate right below the connector joint for the shoulder pad. The round punched right through the armored shell and body suit of the wearer. It traveled on its unhindered path strait through the upper lobe of his right lung, the right ventricle of his heart, and then exited through the back servo systems of his armor before embedding itself into the damaged roadway below. He died of a massive internal hemorrhage a few seconds later.

Sergeant Washington simply saw the enemy heavy weapons soldier crumple to the ground like a puppet with all of his strings cut. His gun continued to fire as he hit the ground. Causing a rather creepy bit of laughter from the sergeant.

He managed to hit two more soldiers before they realized what was happening. Using "Mericone" and "Mierda" respectively. Suddenly his spotter called out an important target. He turned his gun to see one of the Brotherhood specialists positioned behind the leg of the mechanical monstrosity that was signaling the other units. An officer, a rather cute one too based on the fact she wasn't wearing a helmet.

"Ooh, this one deserves something special." he thought with a smile as he had the Lance Corporal pull "Suck It" out of one of the cases. He smiled gleefully as he loaded the spike and another microfusion pack into his rifle. He took careful aim at the target, but the Tin Man's leg covered most of the soldier's body, so he wouldn't be able to get a clear shot at her chest. He quickly shifted his scope upwards towards the targets head. He steadied his sight on the eyepiece of the power armor. He reached his finger up towards the trigger and took a deep breath.

Then, the Lance Corporals voice broke through his tunnel vision. Though he managed to pull the trigger, the distraction caused his shot to drift right of its destination, tearing past the officer and embedding into the ground, but doing little more than scaring her half to death. Washington didn't notice this, as he pulled his gaze from the scope and looked to see the baleful eyes of the Beast starring down at him.

Washington swore under his breath as he stood up, more pissed at using his favorite round and missing, and to a lesser extent in sheer terror. Two points of blazing white light began to burn in the monster's fierce red visor. The two beams of energy tore into the ruined building just as Sergeant Washington rolled back behind several fallen support beams towards the inner hallways of the building. The whole world exploded in white as the beams struck, white hot chunks of concrete and rebar were sent flying as the laser beams vaporized anything in their path, but the Sergeant was alright hiding behind a shockingly resilient desk. He stood up laughing, and before taking cover in the inner hallway he flipped the bird to the giant robot.

Then as if fate had been patiently waiting, he tripped on the step just outside the emergency stairway door and fell face forward. He would have been fine were it not for the bottle of nuka cola he had left in the stairway which his eye struck with VATS like precision. Poking out his eye.

Lance Corporal Harrikson, who had managed to reach the inner hallway turned when he heard the sound and quickly grabbed the sergeant, pulling him out of the doorway. When he reached the old emergency stairway, he propped him up against the wall and pulled out his medkit. The young man couldn't help but laugh as the older NCO swore a storm while holding his damaged eye.

"You alright sir?"

"How about you stop laughing before a cyclops beats you half to death!" he yelled as the corporal bandaged him up

xxxx

_A few Minutes Earlier, the Citadel:_

The dozen infantry of Lyon's Pride were conducting their final check before marching to war. Some soldiers latched down the seals on the power armor plates, their comrades graciously assisting them with the impossible to reach rear portions. While others did one last check to make sure their weapons were functional, the last thing anyone one needed was to have their laser rifle turn to a pile of fancy wired crap in a fire fight.

The mood was about what one would expect from a group getting ready to launch a suicidal assault on a heavily fortified enemy position. Aware of this, Sarah made sure all the alcohol was locked up, buzz kill. Even with Liberty Prime backing them up, most of the men realized they were likely going to meet a rather gooey ending at the business end of an Enclave soldier's plasma rifle. Still, each of the soldiers in the Pride was a veteran who had survived the harshest punishment DC could throw at them, or they had simply accepted their fate as a faceless meat shield. Either way, there was no way in hell any of them were backing down from this fight.

"Alright everyone listen up." Sarah's command was obeyed without question lest the blonde beat them with their own armor. "We're going to launch the assault in ten minutes. I want all your gear prepped and all the plans for the attack memorized." She paused for a moment. "I know that a lot of you won't be coming back here, and I want you all to know that I am proud to have served with each of you. And by now you should all know just how much I hate stirring speeches, so let's go tear those batman wannabes out there a new Bat Asshole!"

The cheer from the soldiers nearly brought a tear to the Sentinel's eyes. "Rothchild, juice up our mechanical friend over there. And the rest of you, all the water's on me when we get back."

The infantry of the Pride donned their T-45 helmets and made their way towards the exit. The left serveral scribes grumbling as they utilized their precious WD40 supply to remove the loud shriek of the ancient gears that were sliding the hangar open.

Outside of the laboratory, the initiates training in the courtyard scrambled away as the ground opened up. Seasoned veterans and green rookies both starred in awe as the crane turned, its lines descending to meet the slowly rising giant coming up from the lab below. The cables strained as they hefted the iron monster from his elevator platform and lifted it into the air. The previous sense of awe the brotherhood members had shared before was eclipsed by the sight of the most powerful war machine in human history, Liberty Prime.

Sarah paid little attention to open mouthed gawkers, they were all pansies in her eyes. Her anger only grew as all the starring idiots made it difficult for her squad to move through the courtyard to the gate. Liberty Prime was at the proper height and the crane was moving him overtop the walls when she finally reached the gate. The rain of masonry on her head when the crane operator crashed the machine into the wall was just more icing on an already pissed off cake.

It took the gate a little while to open up, as the gears struggling at the sudden loss of power to their systems to help life the iron giant from his cage. She could see and hear the soldiers outside fighting. She quickly ducked under the partially opened gate, scrapping the back of her power armor against it, and walked into a whole different world.

A pair of Enclave Vertibirds was circling in front of Liberty Prime, blasting away at it with their powerful Gatling Lasers. Just as one of her troops was about to bring his Tesla Cannon to bear, the leftmost vertibird exploded, a powerful laser beam cutting through the aircraft's fuselage. Prime shouted a spiteful insult about "Chinese Communists being the definition of Failure" as the wreckage crashed into the Potomac River.

The second, upon seeing his brother crash into the water was hit by a missile from one of the soldiers on the Citadel's upper walls. Stricken and with its moral broken, the aircraft gunned its engines and lurched southward away from the battle.

Liberty Prime turned northward just as Sarah heard the distant and unmistakable shriek of artillery fire. She had heard the sound once before when a group of Super Mutants had found an old cache of the deadly weapons. And even though the beasts were incapable of using the weapons well, they had still cost her a heavy toll, losing nearly two thirds of her squad.

"All units take cover!" she yelled through her radio as the precision strikes of the artillery blasted the area around them, the force of the blasts knocking several men down and sending one flying past her.

She ducked again as the second volley fired, but soon realized what their target was, all the shells were striking around Liberty Prime. One poor soldier had been taking shelter behind the machine when a round struck its shoulder, sending a storm of shrapnel strait into the unnamed grunt below. Sucks to be a silver shirt.

The Sentinel grunted as she pushed herself out of cover. "Everyone, follow behind Liberty Prime, but don't get too close. Their target is Iron Giant, repeat don't get too close."

The Paladins of the Lyon's Pride had taken a little damage, but they quickly rallied behind their commander as they followed her towards the Memorial Bridge.

A few Enclave soldiers could be seen falling back behind some sort of energy field by the time they had caught up to Liberty Prime. It hesitated for a moment as another Enclave veritbird came flying past, it strafed the target with its laser without slowing down, remembering the fate of the previous attackers. Sarah ordered the Gatling Lasers and Tesla Cannons to hold fire.

"Obstruction Detected:" the robot belted out in his super macho voice, "titanium alloys supplement by photonic resonance field." Sarah had to admit, she had no idea what that meant. "Probability of mission hindrance: Zero Percent."

Even Sarah had to admit she was impressed as the giant robot simply walked through the energy field that would have vaporized anyone of them instantly. The field overloaded and its generators exploded as the mechanical vanguard stepped onto the bridge, catching the Enclave troops taking shelter completely off guard.

Howitzers continued to barrage the bridge, blasting powderized concrete into the air giving the whole area a bizarre haze. On the far side of the bridge, a vertibird sat, its engine's were beginning to rev up as Liberty Prime stopped in his tracks. The enclave soldiers desperately opened fire with their energy weapons as Prime removed a cylinder from his back.

He took the pose of a quarterback about to throw a pass before delivering the greatest one liner Sarah had ever heard "Democracy is nonnegotiable." He then threw the cylinder which exploded in an atom fireball, engulfing the enclave soldiers and their air transport, leaving little behind except the charred outlines and molten slag from the creation of a microscopic star.

They continued down the street, Liberty Prime shouting Reagan one liners then blasting anything in his path. While the Pride mopped up any Enclave soldiers in the ruins that didn't garner Prime's attention. All in all, it was the single easiest job she had done in years.

The machine was about to turn right off the bridge when Paladin Vargas, the only named red shirt in the pride, crumpled to the ground. Sarah thought for a moment about helping the whinny little bitch out, but Knight Captain Dusk was already running towards him. Sarah watched as the impact sent a streak of blood out of her armor, she fell to ground clutching her abdomen.

"Damn it!" she swore Dusk was actually a half decent soldier, now the sniper had her attention. She quickly took cover behind one of Prime's legs before she began scanning the ruins. "Sniper everyone take…" she didn't finish the sentence.

She felt something rush past her face and embedded itself in the ground. Slowly she turned and saw a metal spike sticking out of the ground with "suck it!" etched into it. She went reeling onto the ground from the shock of it before collecting herself. The massive robot rotated to its left and opened fire on a nearby building, likely atomizing the sniper. At least she hoped. Liberty Prime then lurched forward, leaving her sitting in the dust as Captain Colvin came and helped her to her feet. "Are you alright mam?"

Her badass side quickly reasserted itself and she stood up. 'No way in hell are they going to make me look weak!' She turned to see a medic propping Dusk up and pulling off her plates. It looked like the wound had done some damage to her internals, but she would probably survive. She turned to see another medic pulling off Vargas's helmet. He checked the man's pulse, and shaking his head stood up, Vargas was dead.

Regardless, she was out for blood now. Nobody insults Sarah Lyon's and comes out of it alive! She was going to fill the nearest blood bank with Enclave SOB's, and anyone who wanted to stop her was going to regret that idea.

She then realized just how far ahead of them Prime had got, and quickly ordered the able troops to press forward. But as she picked up her plasma rifle, she had to wonder, where was the Lone Wanderer?


	6. Chapter 5 HOLD ONTO IT! part2

**Chapter 5:** _Hold Onto It! (Part 2)_

FUBAR, an acronym roughly translating to "F_'ed Up Beyond All Reason". It had been a popular term in the US military in the early twenty first century. Since the Enclave was an off shoot of the US Marine Corp, it made a lot of sense that the term would live on in some measure through the Nuclear Holocaust.

The term was always reserved by the Enclave Troops for when a situation turned so unbelievably bad that it didn't seem physically possible. Like an F-5 Tornado, no one believed that it was possible for a situation to surpass FUBAR.

The current situation in Washington DC would have to fall into Enhanced FUBAR.

And two people were at the center of the disaster, the aging Colonel Autumn; who at the moment was busy yelling into his headset at the commanding officer of the Andrews Air Base, and the master of disaster herself, the Lone Wanderer. The newly instated Lieutenant was oddly quiet. Her usually outgoing demeanor was completely overshadowed by her nervousness about the situation. And unlike the good Colonel who dealt with his stress by threatening his officers with everything from demotion to castration, she let her nervousness simmer inside her.

"Yes you idiotic son of a bitch! I want you to target this spot, HERE!" Autumn yelled again.

She turned to look at him for a moment and sighed. No matter how much the old man yelled into his mike, it wasn't going to make them go any faster… 'Wait, did he say aim here?'

As Colonel Autumn continued detailing exactly what he was going to do to the officer in charge, with some rather graphic hand gestures to go along, the Lone Wanderer turned to one of the other officers. "Did he really just say that he wanted them to aim at him?" The older captain nodded, "With a satellite artillery cannon?" again the superior officer nodded. She stood there for a second, trying to come up with a response, but all she could muster was a "What the Hell?"

The elder officer simply shrugged his shoulders "Colonel Autumn has an incredibly literal definition of Danger Close. Whenever he uses that phrase it translates into Run Away as Fast as You Can and Find Cover."

She wondered briefly if the situation was really that bad, but the constant blaring voice of Liberty Prime quickly answered that question.

Autumn finally finished his "discussion" with the commander at Andrews and turned to the gathered officers. "The incompetents have informed me that it will take them time to get the satellite into position. Unfortunately that means that we have to slow them down long enough for them to get their job done. They said we have to give them at least fifteen minutes to get it ready, but knowing them it will take about twenty."

The Wanderer raised her hand, "How exactly do we plan on slowing them down?" the old man glared at her and she winced, "I mean uhm, do we have some sort of plan on how we are going to slow down the giant robot currently eating our defenses alive, uh sir?"

Autumns glare of death softened slightly as he thought it through, "once again you insight shines through your simplicity lieutenant." He didn't notice her hands ball into fists as she bit back a retort. "Contact Sigma Squad, tell them to go with plan B."

With a confused look on her face, the Lone Wanderer asked the all important question, "What is Plan B?"

XXXX

The troops of Sigma squad were infamous within the Enclave, denoted by the stylized Sigma that replaced the usual "E" insignia. They were the elite of the elite, sent into the worst possible situations with the ability to snatch victory from the gaping maw of defeat.

That was at least what everyone had been told as this was the official story behind their existence. Anyone who had fought alongside them knew one all important fact, you never want to fight alongside them! A mission for them was only successful after at least two buildings had been leveled. It didn't help their case that they seemed very eager to share this fact with every person that they knew.

Enclave soldiers cleared out of their way as the squad loaded into a waiting vertibird. With them they carried a large crate labeled "Plan B". While anybody would have seen a squad of emotionless power armored infantry getting ready for takeoff, beneath their titanium ceramic helmets they were chomping at the bit to get into the fight.

When the doors finally closed, and the gunship began its ascension, the squad decided to solve the overlying issue.

"So, who gets to use Plan B?" the sergeant asked.

The soldiers began to argue loudly until the sergeant held up his hand. "We'll settle this the usual way." With hidden grins the soldiers left their seats paired off and faced each other. "Rhoshambo."

The pilot glanced back at the sound of metal meeting metal, and then did a double take as he watched the men begin the contest of kicking each other in the nuts until one would yield. The details of the contest are better left to imagination, the fact that even the female copilot winced in sympathy was a sign of just how brutal the contest was. In the end there was one man left standing as the others lay on the ground writing in pain.

Gleefully the soldier walked over to the crate and opened it up, removing the cryptically named "plan B" a massive MIRV Launcher and several mininukes.

In battle, the Fatman was an instrument of terror, capable of lobbing mininukes with impunity like a rocket powered catapult. However, the idea of lobbing a mininuke, while intimidating, was about as practical as a nuclear powered blender. While many soldiers had learned this the hard way by accidentally blowing themselves or an unfortunate ally into gooey bits, this lesson was apparently never learned by the designer. Quite the opposite as a matter of fact; whether the man who invented the weapon was unsatisfied, insane, or just in desperate need of more dakka, he decided it wasn't enough. Thus began the development of the enhanced version of the Fatman, dubbed the MIRV. Because after all, how better to enhance your small nuclear bomb launcher than by making it fire eight warheads at once? With this mentality instilled in its very design, it's not hard to see why it appealed so much to Sigma Squad. The weapon would likely have served as Sigma's mascot if Eden would allow it.

Sadly, only two prototypes were complete before the trigger happy nuke fest of the Great War. The first was still somewhere in DC, while the other the Enclave had taken, and dubbed the "Plan B" for the sole purpose of when everything else went to hell. And with the proverbial sewage plant exploding next to the fan factory, it was as good a time as any to play the utterly ridiculous trump card.

After loading the eight mininukes required for a single burst, the Sigma Six stepped over to the door and strapped himself in. He swung the door open and leaned out, looking down at the city below. When he found the massive form of Liberty Prime below he grinned.

XXXX

Lyons was trading shots with several Enclave infantry hiding in a building when she heard the vertibird hovering overhead. She wondered briefly why on Earth it was hovering so high in the air, but the hiss of plasma blasts going past her head forced her attention back to the men in the building. She fired off several pot shots with her tri laser against an out of cover soldier and dropped him like a ton of bricks.

"Hell Yeah!" she roared as the other Enclave soldier met the business end of a grenade.

Her victory was cut off as more plasma bolts and laser blasts shot her direction from yet another building. 'How many of these bastards are there?' she wondered as she sat behind the car and changed out her microfusion pack.

XXXX

Above her, the vertibird hovered, trying to keep itself high enough above the giant robot to avoid its nuke-balls, and staying above it to keep away from its laser eyes. Unfortunately, the wind at this level was an absolute nightmare.

Even though the aircraft was bucking up and down, the Sigma soldier had found his target. Then again, giant robot and its allies were a little hard to not notice, especially when they provide their own light show. He leaned out of the aircraft, starring straight down into the ground, and let loose with his the low grade nuclear artillery.

Sadly, the soldier had forgotten that similar to a shotgun, the warheads would spread out, and that all of those big round bombs had one hell of a drift, especially in high wind. Rather than aiming where the cluster would hit around the robot, he instead had pointed his weapon directly at his target and fired.

The results were rather unpleasant, particularly for the Enclave defenders clustered around in the buildings.

XXXX

Perhaps she was taking a cue from Liberty Prime, or maybe she was just insane, but her next decision would forever solidify the legendary status of Sarah Lyons and all her progeny as indisputable badasses.

She leapt out from behind the car and with a scream of "SARRRRRAH ah LYONNNNNS!" and charged a building full of Enclave infantry. The Enclave soldiers were caught off guard by the suicidal assault of one soldier; after all, who could believe that it was possible to be so awe inspiringly stupid as to attack a heavily fortified position.

On the roof of the building, a squad of Hellfire Troopers laughed as she closed the distance to the door below. One soldier brought his massive Hellfire Launcher to bear. The weapon, a devastating combination of a mortar and a flame thrower was capable of literally boiling heavily armored infantry alive. Using his HUD he easily lined up the reticule on the woman, not that much accuracy was required, "point, pull, and break out the marshmallows" was what the design team said in describing this weapon, and their clients had never been disappointed.

As his finger began to squeeze the trigger, the squad was engulfed in a brilliant light, and for a millisecond the soldier wondered why it was so bright. He and his men were atomized in a one of a kind incident of nuclear friendly fire.

The recently released mininukes struck several other buildings, the resulting blast wave of their impact sending dust and debris everywhere. Even Colonel Autumn and the staff officers at Project Purity stopped as the mushroom clouds rose over the buildings.

"Holy Hell!" the Wanderer exclaimed as she stood up off the ground, "that was plan B? I like plan B, I could feel it several blocks away."

"The Enclave; motto, any situation can be solved through the use of ungodly amounts of firepower." One of the officers chimed in.

Autumn cracked a smile as several of the troopers celebrated the minor victory.

The troops near Gate 2 were not cheering. When the dust cleared the damage was evident. Sigma had completely missed the Brotherhood of Steel's forces. Five of the warheads impacted against abandoned structures sending debris and shrapnel everywhere. While the other three landed square in the middle of the Enclave's emplacements, gutting the Enclave defenses before liberty prime had a chance to beat them to a pulp.

Sarah was only a few yards away when the entire building exploded, sending several charred Enclave corpses sailing past her. Her entire front was completely covered in semi radioactive dirt now; thank heaven for Rad-X, and she now had several scorch marks across her armor. But aside from her hair now sticking strait back, she was physically untouched.

"Wow" The shell shock girl mused. Neither she nor anyone else in the vicinity had any clue what had just happened.

Behind her, the soldiers of the Pride stood in awe. Since they had no clue at what the cause of the blasts was, they simply assumed that their leader had managed to bring several megatons of divine wrath upon those who had dared to fire upon her.

The men cheering her name was enough to reboot her and Sarah Lyons was back in the fight.

"Follow me boys!" she shouted as they followed Liberty Prime towards the second gate.

XXXX

"YOU MISSED!" one of Six's squad members screamed at him "How the Hell Could You Have Missed! You Were Using A Damn MIRV AND YOU MISSED A GIANT ROBOT!" Even nursing the injuries from the 'Contest' they had held minutes ago, the members of Sigma squad still possessed enough lethal energy to easily drop their comrade out the side of the vertibird.

The timely intervention of the pilots was likely the only thing that stopped this from happening.

The sergeant interrupted the verbal dismemberment of his soldier, "Who cares if he missed, just break out the ammo and reload the damn thing." The men stopped and looked around, then looked around for the box, but oddly enough they couldn't find it.

The Sergeant had his face buried in the palm of hand as the members of Sigma Squad searched desperately for the mininuke crate. "None of you happened to remember the extra ammo for it did you?"

The men looked back and forth at each other.

"Shit" the Sergeant sighed.

"Sir," the copilot yelled "Colonel Autumn is requesting a sit rep on the damage."

'When it rains it pours' the NCO though as he turned to his men. "Show of hands who doesn't want to tell the good Colonel we missed."

The vote was unanimous, but the look on the copilots face told another story. "He isn't on hold, he is on live…" the woman winced.

There was a terrible silence across the radio, as copilot transferred it to the headset next the Sergeant who put it up to his ear.

"…You missed?"

"…"

"…"

"YOU STUPID JARHEAD MOTHERFU…" now bleeding from his ears the sergeant pulled the headset away, even so he could still gather a few bits of Autumn's tirade.

It went on for nearly two minutes before the Colonel had literally exhausted every insult and curse the he could throw at them. Back at the base he was panting, partly from rage, partly from the fact that yelling at his men was an exhausting task.

'Could this possibly get any worse' Autumn tempted fate with his thoughts.

And wouldn't you guess that fate just happened to be working on express delivery today.

"Sir Brotherhood forces have just breached Gate 2"

"!" Autumn screamed at no one in particular.

XXXX

Out of the wreckage of the recently leveled structure, a form in power armor erupted from the ground. Private Johanson ripped his helmet off as the dust from the pulverized stonework had clogged his air intake. He coughed as he stood up. Trying to figure out what had just happened. All he could remember was a blonde woman in power armor screaming at them as she charged, then the entire building coming down on top of him.

Several other soldiers began unburying themselves from the rubble.

"What the hell was that?" one of the surviving Betas asked.

Johanson simply shrugged his shoulders, "No clue, but it looks like all our officers got crushed in the rubble." He pointed to the various body parts sticking up out of the debris. "I guess that's what happens when you think you're too cool to wear real armor."

Several of the other soldiers laughed nervously before they began to search the wreckage for the other survivors.

In the end, the total tally was four survivors from Beta Squad, a Hellfire soldier who had been knocked off the roof in the blast, and one lucky s.o.b from Echo Squad who had been taking a bathroom break when the building collapsed.

"So what now?" one of the Privates asked.

"Back up plan." The Hellfire soldier took over, "wait for the enemy to move past, the head for the nearest fall back point in the city. We'll radio for pickup and wait for the vertibirds." That wasn't a bad plan, after all no one was really all that keen on taking on the giant robot and some sort of wonder woman that could drop nukes from the sky.

The opprununity presented itself quickly as the Brotherhood moved through the area like men possessed of a single purpose. Of course that would usually spell doom for an attacking force as they would be quickly attacked from behind, but none of the Enclave survivors had any interest in going after Primes tailpipe, he probably wouldn't appreciate that.

The troops moved through the rubble deeper into the city, occasionally stopping to make sure the Brotherhood hadn't grown a brain and sent some forces in to mop up the city. Their caution did pay off when one of the soldiers yelped with the sound of a bullet ricocheting off of his armor.

Johanson peaked his head over the door of the car he was behind as the soldier complained about "some punk ass shooting him in the chest". The guttural yell of terrible English was enough to let them know who they were going up against.

"F-ing Supermutants." The Hellfire Trooper commented as the muscle bound yellow bastards continued to take pot shots at them.

Power armor was designed to take quite a beating, especially when it was against the .32 rounds their rifles used. But having a building dropped on it has a nasty habit of reducing the bullet resistance.

The Supermutants moved in for the kill as the soldiers continued to hug what cover they could. Suddenly one the overlord's head exploded into gooey bits. The others turned but were quickly cut down as well. One stray round ricochet and embedded itself in the Echo Soldiers armor. He pulled it out of shoulder plate and looked confused as he read "BOOM HEADSHOT" etched into the spike.

Johanson and the others waited for a moment to see what had happened, when a man wearing a set of recon armor with a bandage wrapped around his eye stepped out of a nearby building. The survivors thought about thanking him, but he didn't look in the mood.

"You with the Recon Troops soldier?" the Hellfire trooper asked.

"Sergeant Washington sir" he said "Me and the punk behind me are Gamma Five, sniper division." The slightly quiet man behind him had a black eye.

"What happened to you soldier?" the now de facto leader of the group asked.

"He suggested that I let him use the sniper rifle." The Sergeant said as he pointed to his bandaged over eye. "I don't even need one eye to hit those big ugly bastards."

A few of the soldiers laughed at the Lance Corporal, "all right that's enough" the Hellfire Soldier cut them all off. "How long until we reach the retrieval point?" he asked the recon infantry.

"Not far sir, only about another block or two through the ruins" Harrikson chimed in, "We'll have to be careful, lots of supermutant activity, I think the battle is attracting them."

"Just perfect, we survive a nuke dropping blonde and her pet robot only to fight an army of mini hulks." Enclave infantry, they never seem to catch a break.

"Alright everybody, let's move out" and with a collective sigh the ragtag group of survivors moved out, hopefully to an escape from this madness.

XXXX

Meanwhile, back in the Fortified Project Purity, life was going rather poorly for the Enclave defenders. Infantry across the area were scrambling for the final resonator gate as the Brotherhood of Steel plowed through one defense line after another.

Artillery shells streaked overhead as the defenders through literally everything that they had at the attackers. Yet no matter how hard they tried, the Brotherhood continued its relentless advance.

Standing at the facilities entrance, the Lone Wanderer helped several of the soldiers who were streaming in. She had her plasma pistol drawn and ready, but she knew it wouldn't do much good unless the breached the final gate. Which would likely be any minute now, but hey it never hurt to be prepared, right?

Though prepared wasn't going to do jack diddly against Liberty Prime, at least she could take a few of the Pride Members with her.

"I repeat scramble all the remaining Vertibirds, tell all units to withdraw to Raven Rock and Andrews."Just behind her in the entryway of the Memorial Colonel Autumn continued to bark out orders through his wireless headset. Most of the men were moving inside, if they were going to make their stand it would be inside rather than outside against a titanium clad monstrosity.

He took off the headset and moved next to the Lieutenant. She quickly took notice that he was oddly calm at the moment. Then she saw him pull out his flask and understood why. He noticed her looking at him cock eyed and shrugged.

"Might as well go off on a low note." The old commander sighed.

She was about to agree with him when the radio chimed in again. "Sir Andrews is reporting eight minutes and thirty till Bradley will be in position."

"Roger" Autumn responded before flipping the set over to broadcast. "All units this is Colonel Autumn, we have incoming heavy ordinance; range will be danger close. Recommend you all find shelter immediately."

Suddenly, everyone in the base seemed to have found a hidden reserve of caffeine laced with cocaine and began scrambling inside the base. The Wanderer had to duck out of the way to avoid being trampled.

"What the hell? Why is everybody running?" she asked just barely above the bedlam of soldiers.

"When the Colonel uses the phrase 'danger close' it means that it is about to land on your head." Someone yelled as he helped her to her feet. "We better find cover now unless you want to experience an orbital bombardment to the face."

She didn't need much more encouragement than that as she joined to rest of the troops retreating into the command center. She passed a number of troops who were desperately setting up whatever kind of barricade they could to intercept the Brotherhood's troops. After all, they wanted this place in one piece.

The command center had been set up just outside the main control room, the screens showing the ongoing battle outside. The few officers that remained were waving off the remaining Vertibirds or communicating with the few remaining infantry squads still outside.

The Wanderer's attention was quickly caught by one screen that showed the battle on the bridge. A few brave or unfortunate soldiers held the bridge from the approaching Lyon's Pride. They were as good as dead.

'And so are we…' she had realized.

XXXX

On said bridge, Sentinel Lyons led her troops through the furious firefight. Ahead of her, the remaining Enclave forces outside of the complex had taken cover behind several wrecked cars. While Prime would have absolutely no problem in demolishing the dug in troops, he had been slowed down considerably by the amount of wreckage in the previous blockade.

'Besides, it wouldn't be a good idea to be completely dependent on it to do our jobs for us.' She knew.

Above her lasers, rockets, bullets, and plasma bursts filled the air. The Enclave artillery that had plagued them for so long had become useless as they drew closer toward the base. Still, the volume of fire was unbelievable.

She put down a Hellfire trooper as he brought his massive launcher to bear with a quick burst from her tri-laser rifle, but was nearly cut down in the process by one of his buddies wielding a massive laser gatling gun. She managed to get out of the way just as he stitched his way up the ground towards her.

"Grenade!" one of the paladins behind her shouted. There was a large blast where the gunner had been, a quick glance revealed that he was out of the fight. His comrades fell quickly under the concentrated firepower of the Lyons Pride.

The last enemy soldiers made a desperate final stand just in front of the resonator gate. Plasma guns red hot, they opened fire on her troops, liquefying two of paladins under the volley.

The remaining soldiers enacted a harsh vengeance on the Enclave warriors. Bullets tore chunks out of the dark green and black power armor while scarlet beams cut through the heavy ceramic plating. One by one the soldiers fell, the last going to his knees and pulling out his plasma pistol. Firing off a few desperate shots before the powercell ran dry and left him on his knees as he bled out.

The silver armored troops advanced slowly towards the gate as Sarah moved ahead. She stood in front of the dying Enclave soldier who was sucking in desperate breaths through his helmet.

"Was it worth it," she asked "What you were fighting for?"

Through his breaths he looked up at her, and with a nasty hand gesture he told her to "ram it up your ass you bitch" right before he fell over dead.

'That was rude' she thought as she looked up at the massive energy gate in front of her. The bright blue field was all but impervious as the first gate had proven. Just as she thought she was going to have to wait, a booming voice reassured her that wouldn't have to wait for long.

"Significant obstruction detected, Composition: Titanium alloys supplemented by enhanced photonic resonance barrier." Still smiling she moved slowly out of the way as Prime moved towards the final barrier.

"Established Stratagem inadequate," The robot stretched both of his arms wide and grabbed either of the posts of the gate.

In the command center, the Wanderer and Autumn watched, mouths agape as the machine reached up and began overloading their last line of defense.

"…H-How, What did it just do?" Autumn asked

Outside, Sarah had been forced to cover her eyes from the bright lights as the resonance gates overcharged and shorted out. As she opened them, she saw the massive mechanical form duck to the ground as though it was trying to reboot.

She was about to move and finish the job, when she heard the oddest sound, it was music. Not just any music, it took her a little while to remember, but she knew she had heard that song before, Yankee Doodle or something like that. The oddest feeling of dread washed over her as the robot stood up.

'Is that music coming from Prime?' she wondered 'I would have expected the _Trooper_ or _Indestructible _at least' she unconsciously began to back away. The music got louder as it stood up to full height. Then it slowly turned to look at the soldiers of the Pride who had also realized something was wrong.

The usual red glow of Liberty Prime's visor turned to a bright blue color as the music continued to blare. "Hello America this is John Henry Eden…" Sarah's mouth dropped as she began to back away even faster, "President of the Enclave…" she turned around and began to run, "President of America" his visor began to glow white, "President of your heart," if a machine could grin he would be doing so from ear to ear "which I'm going to rip out."

Prime unleashed a hellish barrage of white lances through the Lyon's Pride, killing most instantly, and sending the rest for cover. Sarah had ducked behind a car, but realized this would provide little protection. Another burst of laser fire cut through more of her soldiers as she sat trying to figure out what to do.

She froze as a huge shadow enveloped her, with a terrified slowness she looked up through the broken windshield of the car "oh hell" she said as it looked down at her. Anyone else would have been paralyzed with terror, but this was Sarah Lyons. She took her chances and dove over the side of the bridge into the irradiated water below.

President Eden had been impressed by the girl's tenacity at such a desperate move. He looked across the river toward the Citadel, his target. With the Battle Hymn of the Republic playing in his wake, Eden began a vengeful march towards the Brotherhood.

Sarah on the other hand swam as fast as a person weighed down by power armor could, with the Geiger counter ticking away as she made her way back to the Citadel. It didn't matter; she had to make it back to warn the others, she couldn't fail!

XXXX

In the command center, everyone stood silently. No one could really fathom what had just happened.

'I think we just experienced a literal Deus Ex Machina rescue.' The Wanderer thought as she too gawked at the screens, even after Eden had marched outside the range of the cameras.

"Well, I'll be damned" Autumn said, "he actually did it."

As though a great weight had been lifted from them, the relief began to show across the all the Enclave soldiers in the Memorial. No cheering or anything gaudy like that, just the knowledge that against all odds they had won.

"All hostile forces have been annihilated sir." The radio officer said as the observation units reported.

The old man breathed a sigh of relief as he leaned down on his elbows. The battle had taken what energy he had; it wasn't just an expression to say that he felt a few years older now. Yet he couldn't help but think of the men who had been lost in this operation He was quickly interrupted by one of his least favorite people in the world.

"Sir" the redhead said as she put a hand on his shoulder, "I don't think we're done yet." He gave an exhausted nod in response as she stood up and the two moved towards the heart of the facility.

There was still one task that had to be completed today.

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_Thank you all for your patience waiting for the update. Next Chapter, the arc conclusion._


	7. Chapter 6 The Day I Died

**Chapter 6: **_The Day I Died_

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With the determination of a horny salmon, and the raw strength of a Deathclaw on PCP, Sarah Lyons swam for her life in a desperate struggle to make it home. They had to know what was coming; she had to save them, unlike her band of named characters that had just met a painful end at the hands of the turncoat kill bot.

Anyone watching would have known that she would not only be going a lot faster, but also wouldn't be nearly as exhausted if she had simply ditched her armor in the river along the way. Yet somehow this thought had not occurred to the young sentinel, and thus she continued to swim at half the speed of smell toward the Citadel. All the while her friendly Geiger counter gleefully reminding her how dumb of a plan this really was.

'It's no big deal,' she thought, gulping down another mouthful of radiation befouled Potomac, 'nothing a little RadAway won't cure.' Then she thought about exactly how long she had been in the water and how much she had swallowed, 'well, a crap load of the stuff at least.'

Just as her body was about to overwhelm her ludicrous determination, her feet hit solid soil, and with a laugh she stood up and tried to run. Only for her to once again fall face first into the water.

'Note to self, trying to run in water with blocky power armor is a bad idea.' She noted mentally as she gurgled helplessly in the water. Thankfully a pair of Steel Initiates were nearby and pulled her out of the water.

"Mam, what on Earth are you doing in the water with full armor?" one of the nameless soldiers asked.

"Can-alk, must, daddy, big robot, kaboom." It appeared that the massive amounts of irradiated water or perhaps the lack of oxygen was beginning to affect her brains ability to speak as they tried to stand her up.

"Um, are you okay mam?" the other soldier asked

"mmm-much radiation, no good for me, momma always said neverswallow."

The two Initiates looked at each other for a moment before deciding that she was completely bonkers and that she would likely be safer in the Citadel.

_x  
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**_A few minutes and several IV's of Radaway later:_**

x

Sarah burst into the central control room of the Citadel, finally stripped out of her armor and now in a hospital gown. In spite of the efforts of the medical staff, most of which she had left unconscious on the floor courtesy her severe misuse of an IV tree, she moved as fast as she could to reach her father, her warning now being the only thing that mattered to her.

Her father and the scribes of the citadel watched as she made her way down the stairs to talk to them. He wasn't really sure if he should scold her, or be impressed at her creative use of tape and surgical tubing to hold the four bags of RadAway being straight piped into each of her limbs.

"Dad," she panted, "We've got trouble."

Elder Lyons looked at his daughter and cut her off before she could speak again. "The Enclave has seized control over Liberty Prime which is now on its way here to kill every last one of us."

Stunned, the Blonde stammered out "How, when did you…"

"We watched the entire battle from the Citadel." He said, "After all you guys were quite literally just across the river from us."

As she did the math in her head her heart sank, but her father drove it down deeper when he added, "Which by the way, I am disappointed with your level of physical fitness." He glared sternly at her, "No daughter of mine should have trouble swimming such a short distance! Why I could have done it literally half the time it took you."

She was almost in tears from her failure as one of the scribes murmured something about "wanting to see him try it in power armor."

When her groveling in penance for failing to live up to completely unreasonable standards was over, a question popped into Sarah's head. "Wait, if you know it's coming, what are you going to do about it?" she asked, standing up from her kneeling position.

"Very astute of you miss Lyons," Rothchild noted, "we were initially very concerned when Prime turned on your men, but we soon realized we had overlooked a large design flaw with the machine." The curious look on her face bade him to continue on, "that thing moves incredibly slow."

_x  
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**_On the other side of the Potomac:_**

x

"That's right America, we're back and we're here to…" Eden paused from his speech and looked around as he continued to move forward.

'Damn it this is taking a long time' the AI took noticed of the group of soldiers who had decided to join him from the Memorial base. They were now sitting down for their lunch break as he tried to catch up. 'Oh well, I suppose they had to trade something in exchange for laser eyes' with that he once again started up his Patriotic Songs playlist, much to the anger of anyone in ear shot, and continued his march towards the Citadel.

_x_

**_Back At the Citadel:_**

_x_**_  
_**

"Huh, guess I never noticed how fast he was moving since we were fighting all those soldiers along the way." Sarah noted, "Okay so what is the plan?"

"In times like this my dear there is only one thing to do." Her father said.

"Break out the brown pants and white flags?" Doctor Li added.

"No, though that option had occurred to me. I've got a better plan." The scribes shared a curious look as they wondered what on Earth was going through his head, and whether it would end with them all dead.

XXXX

**_Project Purity Central Control Room:_**

x

The hazmat suited scientists mulled around the control, checking over various gauges and switches that filled the former resting place of Thomas Jefferson's statue, now repurposed for something much grander. Mind you that the place was a confusing mess of technology, with many pieces held together by little more than prayers and duct tapes. But that couldn't be helped; it wasn't like the original scientists had the luxury of poking through anything much better than the scrap yards for building materials.

Unlike the soldiers who had been defending the facility who now breathed easily with the threat passed, the science staff was still going at it as hard as they could; trying to make sure the Purifier was ready for activation.

This frenzy only got worse when the door to the rotunda opened and the Enclave's commander entered the room. While none of them saluted him, as they weren't military staff, they each acknowledged his presence, and that of the junior officer who was accompanying him.

It wasn't hard to see that the old Colonel looked completely exhausted; coordinating the battle had drained the old veteran of at least several years from the looks of it. While the young woman seemed in a state of euphoria, she had survived and won her first real battle.

After finishing the final tweaks to the machinery, the science staff vacated as the Lone Wanderer continued to talk to the clearly zoned out Autumn. "You know what the stupidest thing was?" she asked "During the battle I got so worried that I actually wrote down the whole massive list of all my contacts across the wasteland and who was doing what."

"Why?" the Colonel asked

"Oh you know, just in case." She replied with her usual uncaring attitude.

"You do realize that by the time they got to you likely all of the rest of us would be dead as well."

"In hindsight, yeah that was kind of glaring flaw in my back up plan." The Colonel shook his head, "But it's all good now, I mean it's not like anything crazy is going to happen that someone might find this useful." She tapped the pocket on her right thigh that held her massive tome of information on the Wasteland.

"You'll have to forgive me Lieutenant, but I am very tired, so would you be so kind as to start this thing up so I can go home."

"Oh right," she responded as she began digging through the pockets of her uniform looking for the all important Can'O'Deadly Virus. On the floor landed hundreds of pills, stimpacks, and various injection needles. Were Autumn in a more conscious state he would probably be wondering why exactly she had all those drugs and whether he was going to have to schedule an intervention. At the moment however, he didn't give a damn.

"There we go." She said as she pulled out the Canister Eden had given her, "Now let's see here, instructions" she muttered ""Warning: Contains dangerous bioweapon, do not ingest, or huff or"… yadda yadda yadda, oh, here we go, "Place bottom end in bioweapon receiving port"." She looked over and saw in the double door to the control room a small air-conditioner looking object that had written across it "Water Filter Additive Port, Please do not insert bioweapons, sincerely James."

'That is an oddly specific request' she thought, 'Oh well' the Lone Wanderer simply shrugged as she opened up the system inserted the FEV. 'No turning back now' she opened the airlock to the main control.

Outside, Autumn leaned his elbows on the rail as the Wanderer stepped forward and began to type in the code. He turned when he heard someone throw open the door and come charging inside.

One of the scientists, still in her hazmat gear came running up the stairs "COLONEL WAIT!" she yelled grabbing his attention.

"What is it?" he asked, slightly more awake now.

"There's a slight problem with the system." The scientist huffed out, "Some of the radiation dispersion units were damaged in the fighting, without that the radiation levels will…"

"Will what? Leak out, cause the system to explode, what is it?" Autumn did not appreciate the sudden dramatic pause.

"No, nothing like that," the scientist gave Autumn some relief "But it all the excess radiation will backflow into the control and everyone in there will be in some serious trouble sir."

"Alright then what do you suggest?"

"All we have to do is just hold off until we…" the scientist was cut off by the deep groan of machinery coming to life. Both she and Autumn turned to see the Lone Wanderer had already entered the code and started up the machine.

The Lieutenant looked back and saw the face of the horror stricken Autumn, and one of the Science Staff standing next to him, holding her hands to the mask of her hazmat suit in a gesture of terror. 'Wonder what's wrong with them?' she thought as the two began pounding on the reinforced window, mouthing something along the lines of "run you idiot!".

"MOVE MORON!" Autumn yelled, continuing to pound on the glass.

"It's no use sir, they must have sound proofed as well as radiation proofed the glass." He found the intercom button and began pressing it desperately, to no effect. Before he could ask the scientist added, "We had to cannibalize the intercom parts to repair the computers."

Still having no idea of what was happening, the Wanderer attention was suddenly grabbed by the sound of the airlock doors sealing as the roar of the Purifier continued to build. Understandably this made her a little nervous, but not nearly as much as the sudden ticking sound coming from her pipboy, she pulled it up and activated the Geiger Counter app, which now read something along the lines of "25+ Rads Per Sec" and was climbing even as she read it.

She didn't even have time to pound on the door, which the Colonel had now given up on, "Autumn" she muttered, "Help".

Outside, they watched as the room was suddenly bathed in a bright white and blue light. The Wanderer remained standing for about a second before collapsing to the ground. If they had been inside they would have heard her last sounds being a loud "HHHURRRRK!" before she fell.

"Oh dear." The Scientist said as she looked down at the Lone Wanderer, whose body was currently smoking on the floor.

x

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"_And so it was that the Lone Wanderer ventured forth from Vault 101 intent on discovering the fate of a father who had once sacrificed the future of humanity for that of his only child. The Capital Wasteland proved a…"_

"What the Hell are you doing?"

"…_Every Fallout ends with a Ron Perlman narration…"_

"Are you kidding me? You think I really died in some stupid reactor vent accident? After everything that I've been through?"

"…_Well, that is what happens in the…"_

"Moron! How could I be here writing my own Journal if I had just died?"

"…"

"Either this is the worst attempt at cliff hanger I have ever seen, or you really are that dumb."

"… _I think I'll just go."_ The bulky blonde man got on a motorcycle and rode away from the steaming red head as fast as he could.

"Idiot," she added, "Now, where were we again?"

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**_Project Purity Control Room, Five Minutes Later:_**

x

The purge system was about to finish clearing the control of the high radiation levels. Colonel Autumn and several medics waited outside the airlock for the all clear. As soon as it was given the medics rushed over to the Lieutenant, who was still lying face down on the floor.

"Is she still alive?" the Colonel asked

One of the medics put his fingers against her neck. "She's got a faint pulse, but her bodies got enough radiation in it that I wouldn't be surprised if she turns green and tears off all her clothes."

"Stabilize and get her onto one of the vertibirds." Autumn ordered, he turned to one of the officers on the floor below. "Radio Raven Rock and let them know they have a patient coming in with massive radiation poisoning." With a salute the officer turned and left.

The medical team was flipping her over when a notebook fell out of one of her pockets. Autumn kneeled down and picked it up as they began injecting the still smoldering officer with as much RadAway as they could.

He flipped over the note book and read the penciled in title "Just In Case". He began flipping through it as the Lieutenant was being hauled out. "Oh damn it all." He swore as he realized what it all now meant.

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**_The Citadel:_**

x

The thunderous march of Eden Prime finally halted at the gates of the Brotherhood's stronghold.

"Prepare for Extermination Communist Scum!" Prime's programming briefly overrode Eden's usual intellectual personality as he prepared to deliver some old fashioned Peace Through Superior Firepower on the Brotherhood.

"Excuse me, sir." One of the Enclave soldiers said as he stood outside the gate. "There's nobody here."

"What?" The robotic president was surprised.

"We checked out the whole place, they must have high tailed it before we got here." The trooper noted casually. He didn't really want to add that they could have left in the few hours it taken them to reach their destination.

"If that is the case soldier, where are they?"

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**_Galaxy News Radio:_**

x

Three Dog was a very tolerant man, he had accepted a lot of things being a necessity. He had no problem with a small garrison of Brotherhood troops shacking up in his neighborhood. But this was ridiculous!

He was hard pressed trying to squeeze between Paladins as he went to have a little chat with Elder Lyons. They had all arrived about an hour ago from some secret tunnel they had installed in the basement of the building and were now cramming into every space that he had. It was intolerable.

The DJ was finally able to break through the sea of armor plate and reached the leader of the Order who was currently joking how everyone had thought his escape tunnel idea was crazy, and who was the crazy one now.

"What the Hell is going on here?" Three Dog asked.

"Ah Noble Three Dog," Elder Lyons shouted and proceeded to crush the man in a bear hug. "I do apologize great jockey, but we had a little trouble with the Enclave and are going to be using your facilities as our new base of operations."

Still recovering from the Elder's bear hug, Three Dog couldn't give breath to any of his objections.

"Splendid, I see you are in agreement. Very well, we shall commence setting up our new base, hereby known as Steel City, immediately." With a great shout, the Brotherhood members began unpacking their tools and went to work building their new home.

As hammer smashed away and armored boots rang out across the ground, Three Dog just wanted to sit and cry. At least for that he was in good company, a level below, Doctor Li looked down at the sleeping bag stretched over the concrete floor.

"You've got to be kidding me."

"Sorry mam, the cot is currently being used by Miss Lyons while she recovers." He gestured over to the blonde who had been given enough sedative to prevent anymore incidents of knocking doctors unconscious with an IV tree.

As she laid down on her terribly uncomfortable bed she could only think of making James pay somehow even if he was in the afterlife. "I knew I should have stayed at Rivet City."

Outside the sun began to rise over the bedlam of Brotherhood members working construction duty out in the plaza. On the Balcony above, Elder Lyons stood and observed the ongoing effort. "It is a beautiful new day isn't it?"

On the other side of the Wasteland, a Vertibird began its descent down one of the many shafts into the Enclave's underground base. A single figure was wheeled out of the aircraft to the hospital wing.

The Doctors inside looked over here information. "You think she'll be alright?"

"No way to tell, but give it time, she may just pull through."

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**End: Rise of Eden Prime**


	8. Operation: Honolulu?

**Part 2  
**

_Operation: Honolulu?_

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**Diary Entry #2**

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Big surprise everyone; I survived my Dad's easy bake microwave. Unfortunately that meant that I would never get the chance to ask him why in the hell he had the emergency vents for the reactor go through the control room. Suppose that will have to remain one of life's great mysteries. Afterword, I was laid up for a long time, most of which I spent having more RadAway than blood in my system. So five weeks of tubes and catheters and I was back in action, with a few minor changes. Moira wasn't kidding when she wrote "massive amounts of radiation play with your DNA like a kitten with a ball of string" in her Survival Guide. By that point, I was just glad that I didn't end up a radiation zombie or dead; either of those options would have been very unpleasant.

While I was down, life in the DC Wasteland continued on. The Enclave had secured the source of "Pure" water in the Capital, and was now devoting immense resource to optimize the facility. Apparently some officers thought the idea of hauling the water to the towns on cattle trains was "about as intelligent as depending on a _Please Don't Murder Me_ sign to ward off raiders." The Brotherhood had fallen back into the downtown areas where the terrain was too difficult for Prime to follow. And Colonel Autumn, much to my astonishment was able to distribute the vaccine across the people of the wasteland under the guise of an "anti anal rabies vaccine". Don't ask me how he came up with that, it worked, so we'll go with it.

At any rate, this brings the story back to me, in bed, in a coma, and possibly a few DNA strands shy of humanity. Over the next few months, this ended up being the least of my concerns, as sad as that must seem.

The newly self christened "First Super Robotic President of the United States, Eden Prime" had a few wonderful surprises in store for the Project Purity Heroine. As well as a rather unpleasant visit from a sour kraut that I would have much rather left to rot in the Wasteland.

As we wastelanders say, "God is in Heaven and laughs at how bad we screwed up the world".


	9. Chapter 7 Rude Awakening

**Chapter 7: **_Rude Awakening_

X

X

Deep in the Enclave's underground fortress of Raven Rock was the hospital wing. Patients recovered in the cold sterile environment protected by levels of armor, bedrock, and its army of ruthless defenders equipped with enough firepower to decimate any opponent, and likely a good portion of their own base in any attack.

In one of the many identical rooms, a female occupant lay in a coma from the terrible ordeal she had endured at the end of the Purity Conflict. Machines beeped in acknowledgement of their sentinel over her, while the occasional nurse would come and check on her status. After all, the Lone Wanderer, hero of the battle, deserved no less than the best from the Enclave.

Many of the doctors were beginning to wonder whether or not she would ever wake up. This theory was put to rest with a very loud groan followed by "Oh my freaking head!"

The red-haired woman began to rub her head in agony, only to realize that she had an unholy number of tubes going in and out of her body connected to a lot of machines, and on top of it all she had absolutely no idea where she was. Though seeing as how this was the second time this had happened to her, it didn't seem nearly as bad as the first time.

'Okay how exactly did I get here?' she wondered before the memory of the incident in the control room came back to her. 'Oh yeah, that…' With her memory of "that" came the realization that while she was still alive, she wanted to make sure she still had all her parts, and no extras.

"Legs, good" she wiggled her legs beneath the covers, "arms still just two of them" she then moved to the other parts of her body that were a bit more private. Finally she reached to her face and began to feel around, "Hair, still there, bit longer than I remember, I can see so that's good, and facial hair is… wait." The scraggly facial hair was definitely where it should not have been.

Thankfully, before she could panic one of the doctors arrived. She caught sight of the star circle and stylized E insignia of the Enclave on his scrubs. "Ah, I see our war hero is awake. Nurse remove the face warmer." The nurse complied rapidly and removed the furry warmer which oddly enough was shaped like a perfect beard, from the Wanderers face.

The Wanderer stared at him for a moment before asking the obvious question, "Why on Earth do you even have something like that?"

"Because it gets cold down here." The doctor said nonchalantly. Either he was completely missing the point or purposely dodging it.

The Wanderer sighed she didn't have nearly enough energy to argue with the doctor. And more to the point, she was relieved that she would not have to invest in razors and aftershave for the rest of her life. She relaxed back into her bed, only to jolt upward as a sudden surge of electrical energy shocked her muscles. She started twitching around and laughing hysterically, only managing to get out "What the Hell is going on?" through her raucous laughter.

"That would be the anti muscle atrophy system," she continued writhing on the bed as he went on "It helps people who are in long term care by sending low level electrical shocks that stimulate muscle activity. Hence the, um ticklish effect"

"Just make it stop! I'm going to pee myself!" she yelled.

"Oh not to worry, that's what the catheters are for." He didn't notice her mouthing "BASTARD!" or the nurse who herself was stifling her own fit of laughter watching the Wanderer as the procedure continued.

After about a minute it finally stopped, leaving the young woman lying exhausted on the bed. It took almost another five minutes of having the doctor look her over before she regained the strength to resume her interrogation "How long have I been here?"

The doctor took a moment to think, "Well you've been here ever since the battle at the Purifier and that was oh about a month and a half ago…"

"Five weeks to be exact m'am." A voice interrupted from the door. The room's occupants turned to look at the uniformed officer standing in the doorway. "How's our officer Doctor?"

The Doctor scrutinized the young officer before he recognized him, "Ah Captain Williams, sorry I didn't recognize you, new prescription for my glasses and what not." The Captain continued to stare at him causing the doctor to cough awkwardly before moving on. "Well, she seems perfectly healthy, probably a little weak but AMA system seems to have worked just fine."

"Anything we need to be concerned about?" the captain asked.

The doctor laughed nervously, "You don't want me to answer that sir." Before either the Wanderer or Williams could ask what he meant he continued, "I'll include it all in my report, but the blood work showed some, uh, "interesting" anomalies in her body. I'll have to get back to you on it we're still trying to figure it all out."

"What exactly are you trying to figure out?" the young woman asked, her tone deathly serious.

"Not to alarm you too much m'am, but the first doctor they assigned to it mentioned something about a crime against God and checked himself into therapy after doing your blood work." The doctor quickly noticed that he had said more than he should have, a little damage control from that bombshell was in order. "I didn't notice anything that bad, though I am trying to figure out why exactly we keep finding traces of Ant DNA along with the usual cocktail of FEV and radiation induced mutations we see in Wastelanders."

"Oh, that" the Wanderer said, clearly relieved, "that's a particularly long story that I'll be sure to tell you some time."

Both Captain Williams and the Doctor shared a nervous look before deciding it was better to let it drop. "If that's everything doctor, I have some things that I need to discuss with the patient, in private."

"No problem sir, I have to go check on the patient in 23-A anyway. He tried to stab his last nurse with a Nuka Cola bottle when she mentioned his eye." The doctor babbled on as both he and the nurse took their leave.

The Wanderer sat up slightly, the bed-sheets still glued to her as she worked up what strength she still had. She turned to the officer and asked the question that had been bothering her the past few minutes, "Aren't you the prison officer who brought me my clothes earlier?"

He blushed slightly "uh, yeah that was me, m'am."

She laughed, "Don't worry about that, Williams wasn't it?" he nodded in affirmation, "If I remember correctly you were a lieutenant the last time we met."

"That's correct m'am." The dark haired officer replied, "There have been a number of promotions recently with the losses at the purifier and some of the aftermath." She could practically taste the air quotes around that last word. "As of this moment, we're down nearly seventy five percent of the experienced senior officers."

"Shit" she breathed out, "How is Autumn keeping everything running with that much of the staff gone?"

"Colonel Autumn retired over a week ago." Williams replied sternly, "The other members of the officer corps left not long after, whether they were doing this because the Colonel left, or if it was due to the discovery that President Eden is in fact a computer AI is hard to say."

"So the cats out of the bag on Eden being a computer?" the Wanderer asked.

"Yes m'am, though it would have been hard not to realize that after he seized control over Liberty Prime and started using it to make his speeches." The Captain said with a slight grin, apparently the image of a presidential address from a four story mechanical man was pretty damn funny. "Most of the senior staff didn't like the idea of working for an imposter; most of the junior officers thought it was actually pretty cool that our president is a super computer. Hopefully that means he's smarter than the last few."

The Wanderer was at the moment having a hard time understanding whether or not she should laugh at the comments, the captain's humor was a tad bit on the dry side. "And what about Colonel Autumn, where is he now?"

"After retiring from the Enclave, Colonel Autumn bought an apartment over in Rivet City. He seems to be enjoying his stay, and seems much more relaxed than he has been over the past few weeks m'am."

"Captain I appreciate your politeness, but I don't think you need to keep referring to me as "m'am", you do out rank me after all."

Captain Williams laughed nervously, "On the contrary m'am, I don't outrank you. While you were in a coma, President Eden had you promoted."

"Really?" she replied bewildered, "I don't really get why he would promote someone who is unconscious, but I guess I'll have to take that up with the new boss around here. By the way, what can you tell me about the new boss? Is he a real starched ass or what?"

The Captain scratched his head desperately for a moment trying to come up with the right words to say, "Well m'am the new Colonel is, how can I explain it?" He wondered as the Wanderer continued to stare into his soul, "To put it simply m'am, the new Colonel…"

"Why Hello there Colonel." One of the loudspeakers interrupted the Captain with the all too familiar British accent of America's President. "Captain, I thought I had instructed you to inform me as soon as she regained consciousness."

"Sorry sir, I was informing her about some of the recent changes." Captain Williams replied.

"Well hurry it up; I need my new colonel up to speed as soon as possible."

It was then that President Eden's words sunk in, "Wait, I'm the new colonel?" Captain Williams nodded in affirmation. Her energy recharged, the Lone Wanderer sat with enough force to throw the bed sheets clear off of her bed. "What the Hell! Is this some sort of a joke?" she yelled.

"No joke miss vault dweller," Eden replied his soothing accent doing little to quench the fiery girl's rage. "As soon as you regained consciousness, you were promoted to commanding officer of the Enclave Military."

The look on her face was both a mix of surprise, horror, and a tad bit of disgust. "What kind of stupid plan is that? I've only been a part of your organization for a little over a month, most of which I've spent sleeping in a hospital, and you somehow think I can handle an entire army? That's almost as bad as making a ten year old mayor!"

"I am very aware of the strangeness of the situation. I don't know how much the Captain has explained to you, but let me assure you that you are the most experienced and best qualified person for the job."

"With all due respect Mr. President, I'm calling bull shit on that." The Lone Wanderer shot back.

"Unfortunately it is very true Miss Wanderer." Eden said with a digitized sigh. "All of my experience field officers resigned their commissions when Autumn retired. I've had to promote a good portion of my NCOs and Lieutenants to fill in the gaps, many of which have limited combat or organizational experience. While jumping a person five ranks is a highly unusual, after reading through your journal it was clear that you had more combat and organizational experience than almost all of the remaining officers combined."

The Wanderer was caught between accepting that as a compliment, or if she should take a magnet to the supercomputer for reading her journal. In the end, she went with the former, "I am flattered that you think so highly of my skills, but fighting the occasional roaming mutant, and giving some travelling merchants money and guns is a little different from running a complex military organization."

"Your concerns speak well of your humility Colonel, but just like all things you will figure it out. And rest assured, myself and the other commanding officers will be happy to help you out however you need along the way."

The Wanderer still wasn't convinced, but it wasn't like she had much choice in the matter, Eden seemed adamant. "Alright, you win." She conceded, "What do you need me to do?"

If he had a face he would be smiling, but Eden would have to make do "I am glad to hear that Colonel. Meet upstairs in the briefing room in one hour, Captain Williams will show you the way." The computer signed off, leaving the oddly silent Captain alone with the Lone Wanderer again.

She turned to talk to him, but noticed that he seemed to be starring at something, "Captain? Are you okay?" He didn't respond. Right as she was about to ask again, she noticed that it seemed colder in the room than when she had woken up. Guessing that it wasn't someone cranking up the air conditioner she looked down. Apparently the amount of leads and tubes in her body had made it impossible for the hospital staff to put a gown on her. Furthermore, her sudden enthusiasm in standing up to President Eden had thrown the bed covers clear off the bed, leaving her chest naked as the day she was born. A fact which the good Captain seemed to have taken notice of.

There was a moment of silence as the blood rushed to the twenty year olds face. Instinctively she raised her hand to cover her chest as she yelled "STOP STARRING!" at the accidental pervert in the doorway.

His trance only partially broken, Captain Williams muttered out a nonsensical response as the Lone Wanderer's rage built. "I SAID QUIT IT ALREADY!" she yelled her final warning as her hand groped for the nearest object that wasn't bolted down. Instinctively as soon as she felt something she grabbed it and threw it hard, in this case it just happened to be the instrument table tray next to her bed. The Captain was finally broken from his stupor by the impact of the metal nightstand with wheels against his sternum. The sound of crashing metal sent people fleeing in all directions as Captain Williams slid slowly down the wall into the pile of medical wreckage.

The Lone Wanderer sat panting on the bed, using her left arm to cover her chest. Were it not for her level of embarrassment, the Lone Wanderer would have probably been wondering how exactly she had thrown an instrument table across the room.

"Ouch…" a voice moaned through the pile of medical tools and bent limbs, "Forgot to mention, clothes…beside sink." The damaged officer wheezed as he pointed at the neat stack of clothes on the edge of the sink as several members of the medical staff came running to help him out.

With a huff the Wanderer began disconnecting the various instruments attached to and in her body. Not that she would EVER recommend doing that kind of thing, but she was the daughter of a doctor, so she knew what she was doing. Plus, none of the doctors in their right mind had any desire to point out how dumb that was when she had just clobbered someone with an instrument table. She stood up and glared at the pile where Williams lay "Look and I kill you, Captain" she spat venomously, being sure to cover up all of her privates from the other onlookers.

By the time she had finished dressing, she had calmed down and Captain Williams had managed to pick himself up, though he was clutching at his chest. "Sorry about that Captain, I got a little carried away." She pointed to the scalpel now imbedded in between two of his lower ribs; apparently the doctor had missed that one.

"No need to apologize, m'am" Williams groaned, "I was the one who was looking after all." He said, grabbing a hold of the scalpel and yanking it free of his body.

"How are you holding up?" she scrutinized the officer, whose brown shirt was stained red in a number of places.

"Not too bad, I think I might have broken a rib. Or several." He groaned again as every breath was a fairly painful experience. "Nothing worse than the wounds I picked up in basic training m'am, no need to worry about me."

"Well since you're feeling so delightful, would you mind explaining my uniform to me?" She asked, showing off her new black turtleneck with a brown overcoat that made her look like the poster girl for the Gestapo.

"That is the standard pre and post war US military uniform for anyone ranked O-6 or higher m'am."

As the two started walking, or in Williams case limping towards the elevator she rephrased her question, "no that part I get, but what's the story behind the high heels?" she asked pointing down at her boots.

"No idea m'am, my personal opinion, President Eden was channeling the spirit of Bill Clinton when he decided to add the boots to the uniform."

The newly appointed Colonel smiled as they boarded the lift. An accidental pervert though he may be, the Lone Wanderer could tell she was going to enjoy the Captain. She had to admit that some part of her was giddy with the idea of having fun at his expense.

X

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_Attached File: Excerpt from Enclave Personnel Database_

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David Williams

Bio: Born in 2256 AD, David Williams has shown great aptitude and desire to serve as a soldier. At age sixteen, he showed good athletic aptitude and served as the designated hitter on the Raven Rock 2nd baseball team. He graduated from school with honors at age seventeen and went straight to basic training. By age twenty, he was certified in use of all heavy weapons and power armor, later that year he was accepted into officers school and received his commission as lieutenant. He served as the officer in charge of the prison at Raven Rock, until his promotion to captain following the Purifier Conflict.

Evaluation: David Williams is a soldier to his core. He dedicates himself towards getting the job done; it is not hard to see why he is the top ranked hand to hand expert in the Enclave Military as well as one of the best heavy weapons operators outside Sigma Squad. Unfortunately, this level of dedication has led to a slight awkwardness when it comes to dealing with others, his lack of authority is a common complaint of soldiers who have served under him quoting one "I don't know whether I should be following his orders, or telling him where to shove them. It's like being ordered around by a bunny." Of course several incidents have noted him having an unrivaled ruthlessness; these rare incidents all occurred during his service as an enlisted soldier and are documented there. In another related note of debatable importance, his dealings with the opposite sex are best described as comedic (see file on science staff changing room incident for further details) this may lead to some complications when in proximity to female staff members. Regardless, he remains the best choice we currently have for Executive Officer over the Raven Rock Facility and therefore receives our recommendation.


	10. Chapter 8 No Rest For the Wicked

**Chapter 8: **_No Rest for the Wicked_

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_Two Months Later, Raven Rock Command Center_

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Over the past few months, this room had become quite familiar to the Lone Wanderer. It was the place where the meeting of the senior officers always took place. Like most of the Raven Rock base, it looked like someone had ripped a compartment from a warship and thrown it underground, adding a few fancy doohickeys here and there to try and cover up how Spartan it really was.

Around the table of plate steel, sitting in the few comfortable and plush leather chairs as old as the base itself, sat the senior staff of the Enclave.

Represented via wall mounted camera with an intercom attached to it was the head of the Enclave, President John Henry Eden. Ever since the incident at Project Purity, the citizens of the Enclave began to notice a change in the benign once AI. Since taking control of Liberty Prime, Eden was much more prone to ranting about the evils of communism, and spouting off violent threats like an action movie hero high on meth. Of course he continued on blissfully unaware of this, 2001 a Space Odyssey was a very popular movie in Raven Rock, as such most of the citizenry were far too paranoid to start talking about the all seeing all hearing artificial intelligence behind his back.

Seated on the sides of the table were the various officers who managed the Enclave's military.

Closest to Eden on the left side was Major Walter, head of operations at project purity. The elderly man had recently been reassigned to military service from his old job as head of the science division. He was a very interesting man, eccentric at best, a complete loon at worst. But there was no one else in the Enclave who could figure out all the strange happenings in the Wasteland as he.

Opposite to him sat Major Peter, commander of the expeditionary forces across the western wilderness of the Capital Wasteland. Smart, abrasive, and young were the easiest ways to describe him. He was a maverick in the organization, but served his country well being in charge of the troops and outposts rough-necking it in the boonies.

Next down the line was Major Olivia, the base commander for Andrews Air Base. The blonde woman was stoic to a fault, not even a direct hit from a mini-nuke would be sufficient to shake the implacable slight grin that seemed painted on her face. This was of course an important attribute in her position, the good major had the difficult assignment of maintaining the Enclave's vertibird fleet, keeping the many scientists working on base in line, ensuring production quotas were met, and most challenging of all, she had direct supervision over Sigma Squad which accounted for nearly half the work she had to do.

Sitting almost nearly at the opposite end of the table from President Eden's camera, at the right hand of the Colonel was Captain Williams, the XO of Raven Rock. He was the odd man out in the commanders meeting, only being an executive officer, however most of the actual duties of running Raven Rock that couldn't be completed by Eden's loyal army of tin men fell to him, as the commanding officer of the base was the highest ranking officer in the military.

Which brings us to the end of table where sat the Lone Wanderer, commanding officer of the military. This would come as a surprise to many as the redhead was currently lying slouched forward in her chair, her head resting comfortably on the stack of various reports that provided her makeshift pillow, a puddle of drool slowly spreading across the sheets and graphs.

It hadn't always been this way, only a month ago she was very attentive in the meetings and paying attention to every word that was said. However, the combined effort of running the military, overseeing the huge number of ongoing projects in the wasteland, negotiating with the various groups, and still going on adventures to help win the favor of said groups was taking a severe toll on the young woman.

So as it had for the past few weeks, the meeting continued without the Colonel in spite of the increasingly loud snoring which announced her presence. The various commanders talked, exchanging ideas, then they would give the Colonel the crib notes version of what had been discussed when she regained consciousness.

Williams sat and listened to Major Walter discuss in ludicrous detail the new upgrades he had installed into the purifier, what cup-holders had to do with production he would never know. Meanwhile Major Peter attempted to convince him to get to the point. 'You'd almost think those two were father and son the way they go at' Williams thought as he rested his head in his hand.

His attention was soon caught be another sound. He turned and looked at the Colonel who was now mumbling something in her sleep, the only words he could make out being "please" and "no."

Williams wasn't the only one who noticed, Major Olivia sitting across from him heard it as well. She simply shrugged her shoulders; it wouldn't be the first time the Wanderer started talking in her sleep.

"Please, no I'm just an innocent school girl…" That managed to catch everyone's attention. The argument between majors Peter and Walter fell silent as both turned to look at the sleeping colonel.

"I don't know it was your swimming pool, I… Oh no, please don't do that, what will the other girls think?" she continued to spin the dreamy tale in mumble. "No, not the tenta…ah AH." She moaned.

By now the entire point of the meeting was lost. President Eden was very confused on what exactly tentacle and swimming pools had to do with moaning sounds commonly heard by base staff engaging in the act of reproduction. Major Walter was lost in some epiphany that had come from the Wanderer's dream. Major Peter was trying his best not to burst out into fits of laughter listening to some bizarre fantasy of his commanding officer. And through it all, Major Olivia cracked a light smile and shook her head.

Like any good XO, Williams decided it was time to intervene before the Colonel buried herself any deeper. He gave a light nudge on her shoulder, which sent her rocketing into a standing position screaming "NOT THE TENTACLES!"

Her brain then managed to break out of the stall and the Wanderer remembered where she was. She glanced around at the table and looked at the light grey uniformed officers starring at her. As soon as she realized what she had been dreaming about, her face started to heat up in embarrassment and horror.

One particularly awkward silence later, "I'm sorry" the Wanderer said, "I must have dozed off…" she did her best to hide her embarrassment, but her face being the same color as her hair was a clear sign of just how flustered she was.

"Yes, well, continuing on, Major Walter what were you saying about Brahmin and these mysterious Milk Shakes?" Eden moved to change the subject, sending the Major into another coma inducing rant.

As the officers began to zone out once again, William's thoughts turned to his commander; he knew that the Colonel had been exhausted, but any attempt he had made at bringing this up had been quickly and a few times violently, dismissed. The captain tried to keep up with the ongoing discussion, but eventually gave up and resigned himself to uploading the president's overly detailed notes on the meeting. Williams had more important things to worry about.

X

_Forty Minutes Later:_

X

The meeting ended as most meetings did, without much new to report. After all, most of the real work of operations was taken care of outside of the office. One might wonder what President Eden hoped to accomplish with having so many meetings. The Enclave was one of the few organizations in the Wasteland that had the ability to communicate faster than the speed of smell.

To be honest, it had more to do with not wanting to be the messenger who had a good chance of being shot. The Enclave's leadership, aside from the Colonel, had little interest in challenging the semi homicidal AI.

The Wanderer stumbled out of the room, and almost smacked her head against the door doing so. Her yawn was loud enough that several passing infantry turned to look as she stretched her arms over her head. She shivered slightly as the underground base was infamously cold; not trusting the sudden attention the troops were giving her chest, she quickly buttoned up her officer's coat. "Damned perverts," she swore as they quickly turned back to what they were doing, "you'd almost think they haven't seen nipples in their lives."

It took her every shred of concentration to avoid running into a wall or falling face first into the floor. Granted, this had to do partly with the terrible lighting throughout the base, 'maybe Eden enjoys watching people run into walls' the Colonel wondered. But today she couldn't blame her lack of coordination on the layout of the base, or her addiction to nuka cola; rather her problem today, as it had been for the past few weeks was exhaustion. As simple as it sounds, the Wanderer had not gotten enough sleep for the last month to do half of the work she was doing, and the few nights that she did have time to sleep, she usually lay in her bed looking up at the ceiling for a few hours. The few times she did get any sort of sleep was at any meeting when Major Walter or President Eden opened their mouths, or microphone in the latter's case.

The last few months for the Wanderer had been a blur. Ever since being promoted to Colonel, her days were a cluster of activity. Even after pawning off most of the personnel issues to Captain Williams and control of her trade empire to Augustus Autumn, she still had constant inspections of the troops and facilities, the endless negotiations with the all the groups she had met across the wasteland, and trying to build a friendlier relationship with people across the Wasteland after Autumn's "do what I say or die" negotiating style backfired. Throw in a few life and death decisions every day, and it wasn't hard to see why she was running head first towards and early grave.

Today had been particularly bad. The Lone Wanderer's dreams had been bad recently but that nightmare in the meeting was particularly graphic. She hadn't had one of those dreams since her friends had broken into the overseer's secret video stash and watched something labeled Hentay or something stupid like that. The Wanderer was so tired that she didn't notice that someone was following her, much less talking to her until he grabbed her arm.

"Mam," Captain William's asked holding onto her elbow, "are you alright?"

Dismissively she replied "yes, I'm perfectly fine Captain there is no need to worry."

"Well, um, you were about to walk into the mens locker room."

She turned to look, and sure enough, the familiar stick picture of a man wearing a power armor helmet was staring back at her from the door. 'I could have sworn I was heading for my quarters…'

"Did you mistake it for your room again mam? You're not even on the right floor this time." Her head sank in humiliation. "Let me help you…"

"I'm fine Captain." She replied with a non-subtle hint of nastiness as she started for the stairway, or at least where she hoped it was; her internal map was suffering from highly in her brain drained state. Yet still her dutiful XO continued following her.

"With all due respect mam, I think you're lying."

"Williams I don't have time to argue with you today, could you just give me the lowdown on what I have on the docket today." She said with a mix of exhaustion and frustration.

The captain took a moment to gather his courage, the last time he had tried to convince her to get some rest it ended with a lunch tray and a black eye that had just recently healed. "How about more than a few hours of sleep mam, you're working yourself to…"

"Please Captain." She interrupted, not wanting to get into another version of the same argument they had been going through over the past week.

William's shook his head and began reading the schedule off of his pipboy, "at 9:30 you will take off on VB Two One in hanger 3 for an inspection of the Andrews facilities, at 14:45 you have a meeting with someone over in Canterbury Commons about trade routes, 18:20 you are scheduled to meet with Alistar Tenpenny about stationing a garrison at the tower, you have some miscellaneous assignments written in about a deal over in Big Town, and then you return to Raven Rock sometime between 00 hours and 300 hours." Her head bobbed up in down in what appeared to be a nod as they reached the stairwell.

As they descended to the living quarter on level 2, Williams was sure to keep close enough to prevent her from having nasty spill down the stairs. While he was usually occupied with administration of the base personnel, the Lone Wanderer was beginning to occupy a good amount of his attention.

"Mam, permission to speak freely?" the captain asked as they reached the proper floor.

"Not if you keep referring to me as mam," at least her sarcasm had not been affected by her lack of sleep.

"Of course, uh, Colonel." For some reason referring to her in such a non formal manor just felt wrong, typically it would be on a first name basis, but no one knew what her name was. "You need to take a break. I know that you have at least a few officers that you could delegate some of these jobs to."

"Captain," she began with a sigh, "I really do appreciate your concern, after all it reflects well on you as a leader, caring for the wellbeing of those under your command…", oh that's what she meant, "however most of the people we're working with across the Wasteland I have experience in dealing with, and it would be a waste of time and resources sending in someone completely new to build a rapport. And thanks to the efforts of Colonel Autumn, most people still have a shoot on site order when they see Enclave. At least when it is me they usually stop shooting.

"Besides," she said turning to face him as they reached her quarters, "we're living in a nuclear wasteland, it isn't like I can hop on a plane and fly to Hawaii." Before the Captain could say another word she turned and walked into her room, "I'm going to try and get a few minutes of sleep before my meetings, hold the fort while I'm gone." She said with a slight grin as she sealed the door.

"… Yes, Colonel" he replied weakly as he walked away, trying to find some way to solve this problem.

X

_Raven Rock Base, Several hours later:_

X

The job of running a base is a very boring affair, dealing with various personnel issues of who harassed who, health concerns, and people being unnerved by the video cameras watching everything they do, were the usual highlights of the day. But just like every other day, Captain Williams sat at his desk filling out various forms and reading from the ever growing stack of reports delivered to him. It was inglorious work, but it was the work that kept the Enclave operational, and he would much rather take care of it himself than rely on President Eden to handle it. The last time the President had indulged in management it had ended badly, to say the least.

The work of administration is boring, but it today it particularly bad. Problem was the Captain's mind was already preoccupied when he started, and now he was working at a snail's pace.

He knew that she was working herself to death, and because of that her work was starting to suffer, but even when she took time off from being a Colonel, she would go do other tasks and jobs around the Wasteland and would come back even more tired than when she left. He had talked to President Eden about it, but he had given the same answer that the Colonel loved to give, and since she knew everyone in the Wasteland, it was impossible to send her far enough away. Some help the A.I. had been.

Speak of the devil, "Captain Williams." The President called through the intercom, "There is something that I want you to see down in the science labs."

"Can it wait sir? I'm filling out some important restraining orders."

"Oh come now Captain, surely you can spare some time for the pursuit of science?"

Based on what President Eden and the science staff at the base considered the "noble pursuit of science" it was usually better for your health to turn and run the other way as fast as possible. The guards had a bet going on how long they had until the scientists unleashed a horde of evil zombie minions on the wasteland.

Still, boredom was a terrible thing, and perhaps going down to the lab could help give him some ideas on how to help the Colonel.

Unlike the Colonel, even when his mind was wandering, Williams knew his way around Raven Rock. It didn't take him long to make his way into the creepy stasis tube lined home of the research staff.

"Captain Williams," Dr Holt said "What brings you down here?"

"I came down to see some of the new developments; I heard you all have been making some amazing progress." The Captain replied.

She gave the captain what had to be the biggest and scariest smile that he had ever seen. "Oh where should we start?" She said grabbing him by the arm and nearly throwing him off his feet. "We've just completed research on how to make the wild dogs roaming across the Wasteland into trained cybernetic killers, upgrading the new hellfire armor to actually protect against fire, a new biological enhancement cocktail for our solider, and how to grow hydroponic sweet potatoes.

"I wanted to show him the new simulators doctor." President Eden's voice boomed through the lab.

Her face fell in disappointment, "of course, no one ever wants to hear about the potatoes." Williams swore he could see a tear fall down her face. "Right this way."

She led him into a massive side room that was kept at a low light, where several large metal pods sat connected to a huge bank of computers on that filled the center of the room by several massive snaking cables. The whole set up was being run by a pair of men wearing technician's uniforms that sat at the central computer system doing, well, no one could really tell what they were doing aside from arguing with each-other and eating microwave Salisbury Steak. Williams was impressed at the sight, "pretty fancy equipment, who built them."

"No idea," one of the computer techs yelled, "One of the search teams in the Wasteland found them."

The Captain walked up and looked into the pods and all the equipment inside of them, "you guys found these in the Wasteland, where?"

"In an abandoned vault underneath some garage just south of here, I think the scouts said it was one-twelve or maybe it was one-eight, hell if we know." The other computer tech said between mouthfuls of microwave dinner.

"Please forgive me but who exactly are you two?" Williams asked the techs.

"I'm Zed."

"And I'm Ned."

'How the hell am I going to keep track of that?' Williams thought as he went from one pod to the other, Williams had to wonder "What exactly do these oversized cans do?"

"My you are a curious Jarhead aren't you?" One of the techies mocked, Ned I think. "They're simulation pods, they can create any environment you program into them and drop a person right into it, they can see, feel, taste, smell and hear anything you want them to."

"And it's in color since we finished the software upgrade." Zed noted with pride.

William's took this in as he continued browsing the pods, when he came upon one that was frosted over. "Have you guys been running the AC hard down here?"

"No sir, oh master of the electric bill, there was a cryo stasis system attached to them." Ned said, standing up and walking over to the pod in question, "We took them all off so that the technophiles in the other lab could get their jollies," Dr Holt shot him a look that made him wince, "I guess we missed one."

"Is that right?" Williams muttered as he began to rub some of the ice off the glass pod. He managed to defrost a small section and both men took a peek inside. The computer tech let out a rather unmanly shriek as he fell backwards, "I guess that wasn't all you missed." Williams noted.

The pod in question contained a body, one that had a definite case of freezer burn from being left in stasis for too long. The only thing identifiable on the abominable snow man was the blue and yellow Vault-Tec jumpsuit.

Regaining his composure, Ned stood back up and dusted his lab coat off. "It looks like he died when they turned off the life support to pull the pods out. That's curious; the others had all thawed out when the scouts found them." Zed said as he stood up from his computer.

"There were others?" Williams asked.

"Yeah, they said there nine people who had been pulled out of the pods by the robots, this one must have still been alive." Zed added as he joined the pair.

"Emphasis on been, he's a popsicle now. Let's get him out of there before he starts to stink up the lab." They all agreed that Ned was right. Besides, Dr Holt's dogs and potatoes hadn't had dinner yet.

It took a little "persuasion" to open the iced up pod, but within a few minutes they pulled the body out and gave it to a grateful doctor to feed her various projects, leaving Williams and the two computer experts in the lab.

"So you can simulate any of the environments and situations programmed into the database. That will help our people on training much more than the cardboard cutouts we use now."

"That's not the half of it Captain," Ned boasted, "we can use it for just about anything, hell I plan on taking a sexy beach trip to Hawaii."

Something in Williams brain clicked as soon as they mentioned Hawaii. "As in a vacation?"

"Well duh!" Ned shot back.

"Sir." Added Zed, giving his counterpart a nasty look.

Williams didn't even notice the remarks; he simply stood up and took off towards Eden's control room. All the while thinking 'Eureka.'

X

X

_Attached File: History of the Enclave_

X

Formed Prior to the Great War in 2077, the Enclave was an organization of military, corporate, and political elite and leaders and a large detachment of naval and marine personnel (and their families) that retreated to the Poseidon Oil Platform and rode out the nuclear war. They remained there for nearly two hundred years, observing the various vault experiments and preparing for their return.

In 2242 AD, the Enclave under the leadership of President Richardson made their return to the mainland United States. Utilizing advanced technology the group became militarily and politically involved in what had once been California, and made plans to wipe out the population of the Wasteland using a modified Forced Evolutionary Virus. This plan backfired when a wastelander made his way to the Poseidon Platform, killing President Richardson and demolishing the base, though not before the Enclave was able to evacuate most of their personnel and some of their industrial equipment.

The majority of the Enclave made their way to Washington DC and established Raven Rock as their new base of operations. Under the leadership of President Eden, the Enclave survivors were able to expand the prewar fallout shelter and convert it into an underground city where they were able to rebuild their power. A small garrison was left at the base in Navarro California, but this base was wiped out by forces from the New California Republic a short time later.

Because of the damage they had suffered in California, the Enclave remained inactive in the Wasteland for quite some time, only sending out a few foot patrols. This changed when they got intelligence that Project Purity was being brought back online in 2277. Since then, Enclave forces have made a dramatic move to secure all of the Capitol Wasteland. None can argue whether they have the power to accomplish this goal.

X

(Tune in next time as we return to the Wander's adventures in progress)


	11. Chapter 9 Army Management 101

**Chapter 9: **_Army Management 101_

_X _

_X_

_3:30 AM, CO's Quarters, Raven Rock:_

X

Sleep usually came easily to the Lone Wanderer. During her time across the Wasteland she had learned to use anything from a radroach infested mattress hidden in the corner of some blighted office building, to piles of cardboard or some other unidentifiable substance that she would rather not think about, in order to get some sleep.

One would think that by comparison the bed provided in the commanding officers quarters would have been some of the best sleep she would have had since leaving Vault 11. Instead all she ended up doing was lying in her bed and starring at the ceiling until boredom got the best of her and she decided to get a head start on her daily task list.

Tonight was no exception; the Wanderer looked to her right and saw the time, and groaned loudly. After one last effort to force sleep, she decided that she had all she could stand of counting the pipes and vents in her ceiling, she left the bed. After putting on a pair of slippers, she moved over to the desk, dominated by a large computer terminal.

As the system began booting up, she reached down to the refrigerator she kept next to her desk and pulled out a Nuka Cola. "Ah Nuka, you're my only friend." She whispered to beverage as she pulled off the cap and took a swig.

Before she could engage in any more loathing over her worsening condition, she heard the familiar sound of "hail to the Chief" and turned to her computer. The screen was filled with important data that would probably look like gibberish to any reasonable person.

Sitting back in her chair, finishing her drink, she remembered being introduced to the command console only a few months prior.

X

The massive Sentry Bot that was currently serving as President Eden's avatar finally led the commander to her quarters. "Thank Heaven" she whispered, the base was a hell of a lot bigger than she had realized, not to mention that her feet were not used to walking around in high heels 'what sadistic bastard invented these things!' she raged.

"And over here is your…" the Wanderer completely blanked anything else that Eden said as she sat on the bed, how much important information could there be about her quarters? Bed was obvious, bathroom wasn't too hard to find, the dresser and footlocker were self explanatory, unless there was some sort of hidden self destruct devices or trap doors overtop pits filled with feral ghouls she would be fine.

Then again, knowing President Eden a death trap laced bedroom was a very real possibility.

Unfortunately, the AI had noticed her lethargy and fired a laser above her head. Hearing the sound of a laser sizzling through the air, and having the bright red flash nearly blind you was a surefire way to get someone's attention. In the Wanderer's case it made her all but jump out of her skin.

Why Eden thought this was a good way to get people's attention would forever remain a mystery.

"Colonel, this next part is important. So please pay attention." The drone echoed the President in its authoritarian voice, as the Wanderer did her best not to scream.

"This is your command console; from here you can direct almost all of the operations of the Enclave that are under your purview." She wanted to ask what exactly that meant, but her question was preempted, "before you ask, that means everything that goes on here aside from facility maintenance and automated processes." Whether or not President Eden was beginning to develop mind reading powers was a question the Lone Wanderer would rather not think about. "From here you determine what operations, patrols and missions that the soldiers should undertake, as well as what assets you want to commit to those tasks. Issue orders to the manufacturing and construction divisions on what equipment you want built, what facilities are to be constructed, and how our various bases will expand. From here you can also make critical decisions on what scientific breakthroughs you want our science staff to focus on."

The Wanderer decided to take a gamble and interrupt the President's infomercial-esque monologue. "I thought it was Major Walter's job to oversee the science division."

"Technically you would be correct, but the Major is more than a few crayons short of a box. Besides, your job isn't so much to determine what the science division does, it is more the job of trying to sort out what possible breakthroughs they have made that have any practicality to them, and deciding which research avenues you want us to put to actual use."

After meeting the eccentric head of the science division, the Wanderer could only imagine what kind of bizarre discoveries would come from the labs. Images of robotic alligators and man eating potatoes filled her mind.

"The Most important purpose of this terminal is for you to manage the resources of the Enclave. This involves both controlling the personnel of the army and civilian sectors, and managing the materials and funding we have available. If you screw that up, things become problematic."

The red haired Colonel thought this had all sounded familiar, "So basically it's a real life version of XCom."

The sentry bot's ability to demonstrate emotion would make TV static look exciting, but President Eden's response of "…X-C-O-M…?" demonstrated his confusion clearly.

"Oh never mind" she sighed, lying back on the bed.

X

Still in her nightclothes, the Wanderer sat down at her seat and began to browse through all the bright green text that filled her screen. The room was bathed in a sickly green glow as she began her work as the Enclave Commander.

"Alright," she muttered as she typed commands into the screen to open her mailbox.

**Recycler Units: Resource retrieval operations running smoothly, resource report attached**

**Raven Rock Scientific Branch: RE: The X-42 Samples**

**Major Peter: Mission and Outpost reports available, assignments awaiting your approval**

**Major Walter: Project Purity reports and possible upgrades**

**Diplomatic Branch, Mr. Richardson: Re: Tenpenny Alliance**

**Engineering and Construction: Reports available for ongoing construction projects at Raven Rock, Plans for new projects are requested**

With a bored sigh, she decided to start with the mail that held any type of remote interest to her.

**Colonel, we have begun analysis of the sap samples you retrieved from subject X-42 (AKA Harold). We are pleased to report that initial analysis shows that the samples hold some significant promise for development in our ongoing terraforming research. We have put Dr. Holt in charge of the research as she is our resident expert in the field of botany.**

**We know you have some reservations about the decision to use her for this project, we are very aware that her predisposition towards "hazardous results" can be problematic. However, her expertise in this matter outweighs the possible risk of this project ending the same as her hydroponic research. We promise that we will do what we can to keep a short leash on her.**

"Are you kidding me, they're putting her in charge!" she yelled at the screen. Taking another swig of her nuka cola, she set about typing her response.

**Re: Science Branch**

**Be aware, those samples are vital to our ongoing efforts to speed up the revitalization of the wasteland, and I would rather not go hunting through a Mire Lurk infested cave in order to replace any squandered samples. I have given Dr. Holt great leeway in these matters previously, but my patience is running out. Let Dr. Holt know that should her research in this matter result in another carnivorous plant monster, then I will be feeding her to it.**

So she continued for the next few hours, perusing through the various tasks, reports and occasional call down to the different departments who apparently lacked the ability to proofread their messages.A few hours of resource allocation and other essential but boring work and she decided to give up for the time being. She downloaded anything that was left into her pipboy.

"Man, I can't wait until they get the new recreational area finished." She leaned back in her chair, wincing at the crackle of her joints as she changed position. As she took a second to sit back and relax, the Wanderer caught the sight of the clock over her desk. "Alright, let's try that sleep thing again."

A few more attempts at falling into unconsciousness, and one alarm clock smashed to bits against the bunker wall later, the Colonel began her efforts to prepare for the day.

In spite of how much she had come to despise her formal uniform, and the high heeled boots of bane, it was important to keep up appearances. And nothing got a Wastelander's attention or left them utterly befuddled like a person in dress military uniform. Usually that would grant her about a minute before the average wastelander would open fire, as she had learned a few days prior.

She winced putting her body armor on, the bruises from her last attempt at negotiations in the wasteland had not yet healed. Someone had forgotten to mention that bullets hitting your chest still hurt like hell even with armor on.

'At least I didn't add another scar to the collection' she thought, looking at a few of the jagged marks left from the shrapnel of several grenades and missiles she had been a few steps too close to, and the long lines from the times when raiders and supermutants had gotten the best of her.

Most of these scars were well concealed underneath her clothing, so it stayed between the Wanderer, God, her future husband and President Eden. It would be foolish to complain, a few scars from nasty cuts and stray bullets weren't anything to complain about in a world filled with mutant monsters.

She threw her tan officers trench-coat on over her black enclave uniform and strapped on her gunbelt, taking just a second to check the charge on her energy cells and her plasma pistol. Never hurts to be careful.

It took her ten minutes, and a full high heeled sprint to get over to the hanger bay where her vertibird was waiting, along with her bodyguards.

"Sleep in again m'am?" one of the soldiers laughed. He received a swift punch to the face mask that caused his voice box to crackle, the Wanderer winced slightly from the painful reminder that titanium beats fist, but thankfully her gloves concealed her bleeding knuckles. "Sorry m'am" the soldier apologized.

"Watch out Victor Five" the other guard laughed as he warned the vertibird pilot. "Alpha Two just found out how much of a sense of humor the Colonel has."

The pilot laughed, he liked the Colonel quite a bit, as she actually acted like a decent human being, a sharp contrast to the last asshole he had to play chauffer to. Still, the Colonel was prone to mood swings; some days she would buy you a drink in the mess hall ask you about the wife and kids and all that "I'm trying to get good Karma" shit. Other days she would let her bitchy side out, and kick a few puppies for good measure. The latter of which was happening with increasing frequency.

"Hauling an angry ginger around the wasteland, I think we should get hazard pay for that." The pilot replied on their private channel. Alpha One laughed, Alpha Two's head was still ringing from the punch.

The pilot wisely shut up as she stepped into the cargo hold of the transport. Victor Five moved to his preflight checks and startup as the Colonel and her two hulking body guards strapped the guns in and took their seats in the cargo hold. It always amazed the Wanderer that the tilt rotor aircraft had such a roomy interior in spite of how small it looked on the outside.

Finally the pilot finished his preflight checks and the copilot called back for everybody to hold on. The beating of the rotors outside the aircraft meshed well with the feeling of vertigo as the aircraft began to ascend the launch tunnel from the underground base's hangar. Outside, a squad of Enclave infantry stood guard at the bunker's ground entrance, they turned towards the familiar thumping sound of a vertibird ascending out of the mountain, and flying directly above their position.

Inside the aircraft, the Lone Wanderer's stomach lurched as the aircraft tilted as it reached the proper altitude and turned southeast.

"Are you alright m'am?" Alpha One asked, his voice giving the gravely distortion characteristic of all power armor headsets.

"It's just the hard turns that get to me." She replied. Her first few times in a vertibird had been an unpleasant experience. She distinctly remembered almost coating the interior of one vertibird with her stomach's contents on her first ride with Colonel Autumn. Like all things, eventually you started getting used to them, and now it was only the occasional bout of nausea she had to worry about.

"Andrews Air Base, this is VB Zero One, we are on approach from Raven Rock Base and the Colonel is aboard." The pilot's voice cut through the sounds of the engines and the wind buffeting the aircraft. "Estimated time of arrival, twenty minutes, VB Zero One out."

X

_Andrews Air Base: 10:00 AM_

X

A platoon of armored Enclave infantry stood at attention on the runway before the control tower of Andrews Air Base. In front of the twenty armored infantry lined up in formation, stood five officers, in their heavy tan uniforms. At their center was Major Olivia, she looked exactly the same as she always did, the blank emotionless look all but painted onto her face.

The vertibird came in from the northeast over the base and began to hover over the landing strip, kicking up all sorts of dirt and grime as the heavy tilt rotor aircraft prepared to land. The Enclave infantry were unfazed by the dust devil, due in no small part to their power armors built in filtration systems. Major Olivia and her command staff were not so fortunate in this regard and she did her best not to choke in the storm.

The landing gear deployed with a quiet hum, completely drowned out to anyone not in the aircraft and set down with a loud thud. With pilot cutting power to the engines, the rotors began to slow and the dust storm quickly subsided.

Stifling one last cough of wasteland sand, Major Olivia dusted off some of the more obvious patches of dirt from her uniform. 'Note to self,' she thought, 'Wait until the damned helicopter has landed next time before stepping out with the honor guard.'

The ramp lowered from the vertibird as a pair of flight support personnel moved to secure the aircraft. Out of the vertibird's cargo bay, two massive forms in Tesla Armor, plasma rifles drawn, stepped out and moved to flank either side of the ramp. The infantry platoon saluted as the Colonel stepped out onto the ramp.

She reached the first step with no problem, but on the ramps second step her boot slid forward, pitching the Colonel forward with a loud cry of "FUUUUUUU-"followed by a crash.

Several winces of pain could be heard from the infantry that continued to stand in salute. Not fazed by such foolishness, Major Olivia stepped forward and helped the Colonel up.

"Still getting used to the high heels m'am?" Major Olivia asked as she grabbed a handkerchief from the lieutenant standing next to her and gave it to the Colonel.

The Colonel quickly put the piece of cloth to use, wiping the blood from her lips and then pinching her nose. Not wanting to give a nasally response she simply nodded her head. With a sympathetic nod, Major Olivia spun around to the assembled troops, and in a booming, commanding voice ordered them all at ease.

"Shall we proceed with the inspection m'am?" The Major asked. Once again the Colonel gave a simple nod as she held her nose with the blood stained handkerchief.

"Well, that was graceful." Alpha One laughed as the Colonel and Major Olivia began to walk towards the main base facilities.

X

A few hours later, and one stop at the infirmary so that the Colonel could get some tissue to jam up her nose. The tour walked past a heavily armored bunker, converted from what had once been a prewar bomber hangar.

"The new power armor production facilities will be operational within the next ten days, once we have all the machinery calibrated and the personnel trained we will be able to move to full production of Hellfire and Power Armor." Major Olivia droned on, oblivious to the fact that the Colonel had stopped to look at the massive, reinforced armor structure.

"Major," Finally the Wanderer got the officers attention, "What exactly are you planning on doing with this structure?" she asked.

"Ah," Major Olivia noted, "this is the facility we had built to accommodate Sigma Squad." The Major pointed to the stylized Sigma Insignias recently spray painted on both of the blast doors.

A chill went up the Colonel's spine, she was well aware of the reputation Sigma Squad had earned itself within the Enclave military. Overkill was not so much as philosophy as it was a mandatory element of every strategy that the squad would ever be involved with. If a plan didn't call for the use of a mininuke, leveling a structure, or filling the air with enough energy to power a New Vegas casino, then they would find a way to make sure it happened, however hilarious the excuse would be.

Because of this "enthusiasm" Sigma Squad had typically been sent out to some remote wasteland outpost or section of the base far away from other military units who feared they would be caught in the crossfire of Sigma's legendary training drills.

When she had first been appointed as commander of the Enclave military, the Lone Wanderer had thought it would be a good idea to disband the squad, as the individual soldier's psychotic obsession with big guns and bigger explosions seemed to play off each other. So many people sharing the same love of catastrophic destruction was doomed to spiral out of control, and if the Battle for the Purifier hadn't been enough evidence, a recent incident involving use of a prototype plasma gatling cannon against mole rats was sufficient testimony to the danger of their "enthusiasm."

However, President Eden saw her request and proceeded to give the Wanderer a history lesson about Colonel Autumn trying the same plan years ago. It took many years of brutal training and indoctrination to remove the "infection" that followed the former Sigma members when they were placed in other squads. To this day Psychologists in the Enclave still list "Sigma Syndrome" as the number one cause of friendly fire incidents.

As grim as it seemed, containing the nuts to a bunker and bringing them out whenever something needed to be killed several times over was probably the best course of action.

"I would like to see the facility." The Colonel ordered. Major Olivia was not a woman who was known for showing much emotion, as such, even slight gestures spoke volumes when she was involved. Olivia's response of cocking her eye was enough to clearly send the message of 'you sure about that' and 'you are completely insane' without saying a word.

The Blonde stepped up to the terminal and entered the code. Massive hydraulic pistons ground behind the wall as the door locks disengaged and the thick blast doors slowly slid open. "Don't you think this security might be a little much Major? I seriously doubt that anyone would go…"

The Colonel froze when she heard the sound of a countdown coming from the hangar. Major Olivia nonchalantly stepped away from the entrance as both the Colonel and her body guards moved very quickly to the far corner of the structure.

The trio ducked behind one of the support beams of the bunker's exterior, all the while Major Olivia held her ground. When the countdown reached zero, the unmistakable "FWOOSH" of a heavy incinerator filled the air, along with a powerful blast of heat.

"See, I told you that those new armor mods would work against the heavy incinerator."

"Don't count your chickens before they hatch, Deryl is still on fire over there. ARE YOU COOKING IN THERE YET?!"

"Nope, he waved, that means I get the whiskey and dibs on the plasma gatling cannon."

"Like hell it does! And that's not waving, he's trying to take the searing hot armor off before his skin melts to it."

"Bull shit, I won, you lost accept…" the soldiers shut up as Major Olivia whistled.

Two soldiers wearing uniform pants and black tank tops turned around, one of which was holding the monstrous, and still smoldering heavy incinerator with one hand. "Sorry Major we didn't know we had visitors, I guess we need to work on the doorbell."

The Lone Wanderer and her guards had moved out of cover, and nervously stood next to Major Olivia. "We didn't reinforce the hangar to keep people out, m'am." The Major's deadpan response was proving to be extremely unnerving "It was to make sure nothing they built did significant damage to the base." The Colonel couldn't argue with that logic as she stepped into the hangar and saw all the goodies Sigma had strewn across their bunker home.

Dominating the room was a vertibird gunship, clearly in the process of being refit to "Sigma Standards" which looked to involve a lot of weapon systems, armor, and something that gave off the same light as glowing ghoul right before he exploded in a storm of radioactive happiness. Behind that was a large fabrication area filled with workbenches and heavy machinery, any space on which was filled with blueprints, tools, components, ammunition, or and some things that didn't look like they came from this world. The Lone Wanderer prayed they hadn't come across alien technology. The entire western half of the bay was dominated by a firing range, while the east side of the hangar contained an old armory that had been repurposed as the squad's barracks.

It was the most bizarre and possibly insane fusion of military and mad science mankind had ever seen. This facility stood as a complete subversion of the prewar stereotype of the "dumb jarheads" and it was absolutely terrifying.

Never one to be particularly concerned about the ethics of super or even evil science, the Wanderer moved past the soldiers and looked at the work benches. She looked over some of the plans and was astonished at the details, even with her background in science; the Wanderer couldn't begin to fathom some of the material she was reading, though she was pretty sure that some of it violated the laws of physics, thermodynamics, and several statutes of the Enclave's greatly relaxed standards on war crimes.

Before she could give her praise to the Sigmas for their surprising level of intelligence, she caught sight of several men in the stereotypically white lab coats and uniforms of the Enclave's science division, in the far side of the hangar, chained and duct taped to their chairs.

"Uhm, what is the story with that?" the Wanderer asked pointing towards the science slaves.

"Oh we just needed to borrow them; we needed a little help working on the cooling system for the Death Storm." One of the Sigma soldiers with a sergeant's chevrons tattooed on his arm answered.

"Borrowed?" the Colonel asked, her face turning slightly pale as both her guards tightened the hold on their weapons.

"Sigma will occasionally abscond with some of our scientists and engineers when they need help with one of their projects." Major Olivia chimed in, "As long as they bring them back to us in one piece and with their faculties intact we are willing to look the other way."

'These people are as crazy as Moira Brown' a shudder went through the Wanderer's DNA at the memory of Doc Brown. 'I've got to get out of here before something bad happens!' Wisely she turned to leave, but caught sight of a statue and the powerful "curiosity in violation of common sense" instinct the Wanderer had inherited from her father overwhelmed her flight response.

She and her bodyguards stared at the statue for a moment, drinking in all the details before she asked the obvious question, "Why does that statue have a nuclear bomb for a head?" The Wanderer asked, and instantly regretted.

Without missing a beat, all of the various soldiers throughout the hangar stopped what they were doing and turned to face the hulking armored titan that indeed had what appeared to be an ICBM for a head. "The pinnacle, and all we seek to achieve; destruction unparalleled, oblivion to shake the world to its very foundation. Make the Earth cry like the whiny bitch she is! Boom for the Boom God!" the Sigmas chanted with equal reverence and bloodlust.

'I take it back; these people leave Moira Brown in the dust.'

X

_2:30 PM_

X

The Wanderer faded in and out of consciousness as she sat in the horribly uncomfortable seat in her vertibird. With how tired she was, she could probably fall asleep in a super mutant hovel and not give a damn. The people onboard had not helped matters either, her two guards were having a private conversation using their personal radio, and the pilot and copilot were busy flying the gunship.

Letting the wonderful experience of the Andrews Air Base tour fade from memory led her into the loving embrace of rest. And as the world faded around her she found herself in an unfamiliar environment.

Typically her dreams of late had involved nightmares about swimming pools, being back in the vault with all her jump suits missing forcing her to do everything in her underwear, or being pregnant with Butch DeLoria's child (That last one was particularly haunting). But this one was new.

She found herself in a forested area, eerily similar to the Oasis, but without any of the sounds of life or any of the adorably crazy tree huggers that made up the commune. Even Harold, the loveably suicidal sentient tree was missing in action. The green trees cast long shadows that made the entire world a lot darker than she ever thought the outside could be.

The young woman stood, alone in the woods, clad in Colonel's uniform, utterly bewildered. She noticed a slight sound, but it was a whisper that she would fade just as soon as the Wanderer registered it.

The silence was wrong, and the feeling of being watched only added to the wrongness of everything in this place.

A flash of white caught her eye, and the Wanderer noticed what looked like the flutter of a long white coat as it passed between the trees.

Looking for anything that she could pursue, the Lone Wanderer took off after it, following it through the trees, never seeing more than the slight blaze of white in the dark background. The trees of the forest became taller the light faded further and further into darkness as she pursued her target. All the while, the whispers were becoming louder the deeper she went into the darkness.

Finally the trail came to an end in a clearing. The sky was cast in dark storm clouds, drowning out all light, as leaves fell to the ground, carpeting the ground. She could see a tall and imposing man wearing a white coat, his back turned towards her, dark hair highlighted with bits of grey, black boots and blue pants with a yellow stripe visible outside the bleached white coat.

Her breath caught in her mouth as she stopped dead in her tracks. The Wanderer couldn't bring herself to take another step closer as a grim familiarity filled her mind. After several minutes of silence, the Wanderer forced out the only word she could manage.

"Dad…?"

X


End file.
